Truck freight in Canada is carried on a fleet of about 640,000 trucks (vehicles with a registered weight of at least 4,500 kg/10,000 lbs), according to Statistics Canada’s Canadian Vehicle Survey. Most of these ply our highways and roadways. The remainder work off highway or in specialty applications such as snow-plowing, fire fighting, etc.

The predominance of Class 8s (15,000 kg/33,000 lbs or more), has been growing in recent years. They account for about 306,000 of these vehicles or close to half of the total truck population. However, it’s questionable if that trend will continue. With domestic freight growing faster than international freight in recent years, the move to more regional distribution patterns and with more municipalities considering banning heavy trucks from city streets, the share of Class 8 trucks in our marketplace may have reached its peak and there may be a growing emphasis on Classes 5-7 in coming years. Most Canadian fleets (35%) are on four-to five-year trade-in cycles for their heavy-duty trucks. A greater percentage (42%) of owner/operators are also updating their heavy-duty iron every four to five years. Those cycles were likely extended for those carriers who used a pre-buy as a strategy to avoid the 2007 round of engine emissions standards. •

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Light & Medium-Duty 331,667

Class 8 305,947

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Total Heavy Trucks 637,614