Study: Trucking across the Canada-US border, 2004 to 2009

View the most recent version.

PDF version

In 2009, it cost 15% more to ship cargo across the border from Canada to the United States by truck than it did to transport equivalent goods the same distance between two destinations within Canada.

If cargo happened to be picked up in the United States and brought into Canada in 2009, the cost of importing these goods was estimated at 28% more than shipping the same goods domestically.

This study provides a first-ever estimate of the magnitude and sources of costs associated with trucking goods across the border between 2004 and 2009.

The two main factors in cross-border trucking costs are fixed costs per shipment of moving goods across the border and higher line-haul costs of trucking cargo over longer distances.

Delays at the border and other border compliance costs add to the fixed costs per shipment incurred by trucking firms. These fixed costs include facilities cost, insurance, and terminal costs, that is, loading and unloading costs.

Similarly, differences in fuel prices or difficulties finding "backhauls," namely cargo for a return shipment, can add to the line-haul costs of shipping to and from the United States.

The estimates for 2009 were a reversal of the situation five years earlier.

In 2004, the cost of trucking goods across the border from Canada to the United States was roughly 31% higher than shipping them the same distance domestically, well above the 2009 estimate.

However, the cost of importing goods by truck from the United States was an estimated 18% higher in 2004, well below the estimate five years later.

This reversal resulted primarily from changing line-haul costs, which, relative to domestic line-haul costs, fell for exports and rose for imports. Over this period, the balance of truck-borne trade swung decidedly towards imports, which may have switched the "backhaul" from the import to the export portion of a truck's round-trip.

On a tariff-equivalent basis, the extra cost associated with cross-border trucking added about 0.9% to the value of exported goods in 2004 and 0.4% to imported goods.

By 2009, the extra costs of cross-border trucking added about 0.4% to the value of exported goods, and 0.8% to the value of imported goods.