In 2018, 312,000 truck drivers were employed by the Canadian trucking industry, an increase of 55,000 from 2000. Despite this increase, the prevailing view is that there is a shortage of truck drivers. The influence of this shortage is reflected in the unfilled driver positions and recent wage increases, which over this time period grew by 11.5 percent for males to an average of 45,681 Canadian dollars per year. Unfortunately female truck driver wages lag behind those of males, being on average just under 10,000 dollars per year lower in 2016. That imbalance is likely related to the fact that almost 97 percent of Canadian truck drivers are male.
By far the largest provider in the Canadian trucking market is TFI International, who operated a fleet of approximately 34,000 trucks in 2019 and generated revenue of more than 5.1 billion Canadian dollars. The next two largest players are Day & Ross Transportation and the Mullen Group, however the 2019 revenue figures for both these companies were below one billion dollars, and their fleet size is less than half of TFI International’s.
In addition to the transportation of goods, Canada also manufactures a large number of trucks. Canadian truck production is more than triple of the car production, with over 1.4 million trucks produced in 2019. Even with the slight decline in the overall Canadian trucking market, the value of truck sales have seen strong year-on-year increases over recent times. Between 2014 and 2019, sales grew by 52 percent to 69 billion Canadian dollars. Sales growth is expected to continue into the future, albeit at a slower rate.
