OTTAWA, (Jan. 24, 2005) — Trade between Canada and the United States continues to be dominated by road transportation, confirms Statistics Canada. In terms of revenue, over 53 per cent of Canadian exports and 79 per cent of imports were moved by truck in 2003.

Transborder movements accounted for 22 per cent of total shipments and 47 per cent of revenues. Carriers hauled 8.7 million shipments across the Canada-U.S. border in 2003, with freight totalling more than 85 million tonnes, generating $8 billion in revenues.

The most frequent commodities moved to or from the U.S., other than miscellaneous transported products, were vehicles including parts and accessories.

Roughly 2,200 long distance for-hire trucking companies based in Canada that had annual operating revenues of $1 million or more generated $16.8 billion in revenues, an increase of 7.5 per cent from 2002. These long distance carriers hauled 305 million metric tonnes of freight in 2003, up 4 per cent.

Domestic shipments accounted for 72 per cent of this total tonnage and 53 per cent of revenues. Carriers hauled 32 million shipments within Canada, weighing 219.8 million tonnes. Domestic shipments generated $8.8 billion in revenues.

In total, the transportation and warehousing sector employed over 610,000 people in 2003. The trucking industry was by far the largest employer accounting for almost 27 per cent or 165,000 of the people working in the sector.

Data showed that carriers were generally profitable in 2003. For-hire trucking companies generated $20.5 billion in total revenues and had $19.6 billion in total expenses. The overall operating profit margin was lower in 2003 at 4.4 per cent, compared with 5.1 per cent in 2002. However, operating profit margins for carriers with annual revenues between $1 million and $2 million and those with annual revenues greater than $25 million increased between 2002 and 2003.