OTTAWA, ON – Canada’s for-hire trucking operations hauled 745.5 million tonnes of freight in 2014, up 7.9% over 2013, Statistics Canada reported today.

The related revenue was up 14.8%, reaching 14 cents per tonne-kilometre, while domestic freight generated 16 cents per tonne-kilometre.

Most of the weight (86.2%) involved domestic shipments, which rose 8.3% in the year. General freight led the way in Ontario and Quebec, while petroleum was the driving force in Alberta. General freight and motor vehicle parts accounted for most of the cross-border shipments by weight.

The total tonnage of freight hauled between 2009 and 2014 jumped 41.1%. Leading commodities during that period included general freight, gravel and crushed stone, crude petroleum, gasoline, and lumber. Ontario’s top commodity by weight was crushed stone (32.1 million tonnes per year), while crude petroleum topped the scales in Alberta (31.5 million tonnes per year). General freight was Quebec’s top commodity by weight, averaging 15.1 million tonnes per year.

Over that six-year span, almost ¾ of the tonnage never left the province where it began. Shipments to other provinces accounted for 11.7%, while the remaining 13.8% crossed the U.S. border.

The top two commodities crossing the Canada-U.S. border for that same period included general freight (17.9%) and motor vehicle parts (7.1%). “Over this period, not only was there a greater volume shipped, but freight was shipped a greater distance – increasing 7% to 635 kilometres per shipment in 2014,” Statistics Canada reports. “The overall distance grew 35.6% as a result of increases in both domestic freight and transborder shipments.”