Canada had just over 134,000 for-hire trucking companies on the road in 2019, realizing a collective operating profit of $7.9 billion.

The findings emerge in Statistics Canada’s for-hire trucking survey, which noted the businesses collectively generated $67.8 billion in operating revenue from trucking and related services. Operating expenses totaled $59.8 billion.

Employee salaries, wages and benefits accounted for 25.3% of the operating expenses, while payments to owner-operators accounted for 22.1%. Vehicle fuel represented 15.1% of the operating expenses.

Ontario trucking companies led the way with $24.4 billion in the 2019 revenue, followed by Alberta ($11.9 billion) and Quebec ($11.8 billion), the national number crunchers add.

General freight operations accounted for $44.1 billion of the national operating revenue and $39 billion of the expenses. Specialized freight haulers accounted for $23.7 billion in operating revenue and $20.1 billion in expenses.

Intraprovincial shipments accounted for 43.6% of the operating revenues collected by Canadian carriers, with interprovincial shipments accounting for 19.9%. International movements into Canada represented 17.7% ($11.1 billion) in revenue, while international movements out of Canada accounted for the remaining 18.7% ($11.7 billion).

Comparative data is not available for 2018.