Trucking

  • Alberta Motor Transport Association

    Search for Alberta carriers under these headings:
    • Agricultural
    • Courier
    • Dry Bulk
    • Dump Trucks
    • General Merchandise
    • Heavy Haul
    • Liquid Bulk
    • Oilfield
    • Other

Trucking can be used to make door to door deliveries or in conjunction with intermodal terminals in Edmonton, Calgary or Butte, Montana.

Full load shipments between Alberta and California generally take from 48 to 72 hours for door-to-door pick up and delivery.

Overnight or second day delivery is possible for northern California, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana.

The East-West flow of goods is handled by established national firms. The growing North-South trade has been handled by expanding U.S. networks. Flexible service to small communities is provided by independent truckers, either singly or in cooperative associations. There are also a variety of freight forwarders and couriers for small or irregular shipments.

Trucking Industry in Canada

Within Canada, the trucking industry generates around $40 billion in annual revenue. More than 11,000 trucking companies, using nearly 700,000 trucks, are in operation. Registered vehicle weights are in excess of 4.5 tonnes and range from double-axle trucks to 18-wheel tractor-trailers. Approximately 95% of trucking companies (10,500) are commercial carriers available for hire. The remaining 500 carriers are private firms, generally handling the trucking needs of large companies who find providing their own transportation cost effective.

A further 40,000 independent owner-operators contract services to private carriers.

In addition to commercial orientation, trucking companies are sub-classified according to where they operate:

  • intraprovincial - operate within the confines of any one province
  • interprovincial.- operate between two or more provinces
  • extraprovincial - operate between Canada, the United States or Mexico

Trucking firms are also differentiated according to:

  • type of service, including truckload (TL) or less-than-truckload (LTL) shipments
  • freight handled, such as general merchandise, dry or liquid bulk
  • use of specific equipment to handle particular commodities or specialized markets, including general purpose trailers, reefers, flat-decks, tankers and hoppers
  • organization size

Trucking Contractors

  • Carriers earning more than $1.0 million/year account for greater than 80% of the $16.5 billion earned by Canadian trucking contractors. General freight carriers are the most common, accounting for about 60% of this revenue.
  • Specialized freight service (including heavy machinery and automobile movement) generate somewhat less than 20% of the remaining revenue. Liquid bulk products, dry bulk products, forest products and household goods each signify less than 10%.
  • Canada's 70 largest carriers (those earning more than $25 million/year) receive about one-quarter of the industry's revenue. When combined with carriers earning more than $12 million/year, these two groups account for almost half of the sector's overall business activity.

Private Trucking

  • Private carriers account for about 40% of intraprovincial and 25% of interprovincial trucking. They also account for around 85% of freight moved within urban areas.
  • About 90% of private trucking fleets include 10 vehicles or less.
  • Private trucking outfits tend to be retailers or consumer product distributors moving their own goods within major urban areas.

Related Websites

Date Updated: Jul 23, 2005
RDP-1087