OTTAWA (Dec. 4, 2000) — High fuel prices, interest rate pressures, and an acute shortage of qualified truck drivers weren’t enough to halt growth of the for-hire trucking industry.

There were nearly 2600 for-hire trucking companies with annual revenues of $1 million based in Canada in the second quarter, compared with an estimated 2500 carriers during the same period a year earlier, Statistics Canada reported.

Second quarter-2000 operating revenues for these carriers totaled $4.8 billion, 35% of which derived from international movements to or from the United States and Mexico. Operating expenses posted by for-hire carriers reached $4.5 billion, up19% from the second quarter of 1999.

On a year-over-year basis, average operating revenues increased 12% to $1.84 million, while expenses climbed almost 13% to $1.71 million.

The operating ratio (operating expenses divided by operating revenues) dropped one point compared with the second quarter of 1999, to 0.93.

However, total fuel expenses rose an average of 59% over the second quarter of 1999, and 50% per carrier compared with the first six months of 1999.