In a country as large as Canada with major city centres set far apart and an economy heavily reliant on crossborder trade, commercial transportation inevitably plays a major role. The transportation sector contributes about 4.2% of Canada’s total economic output as measured by gross domestic product, according to the latest data from Statistics Canada. To place that in perspective, Canada’s booming mining and oil and gas extraction sector contributes about 3.7% to GDP.

It’s also important to note trucking’s importance within the transportation sector. Trucking activity accounts for more than one third (35%) of the GDP generated by the transportation sector and is one of the faster growing modes.

And yet the impact of transportation on the Canadian economy, and trucking in particular, may be underestimated because government estimates usually only include the contribution of “for-hire” transportation services. In fact, one study that looked back at the year 2000 found that while for-hire transportation accounted for 3.7% of economic output as measured by GDP, when “own-account” or private transportation services were included, the contribution of the transportation sector jumped to 6.3%. That placed transportation behind only four other sectors in terms of size. Truck and delivery van services dominate “own- account” transportation, accounting for 89% of the total.