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For-hire motor carriers of freight, top carriers
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The top 97 for-hire carriers (Canadian-based trucking companies earning $25 million or more annually) generated operating revenue of $2.6 billion and operating expenses of $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008.
For these carriers, both operating revenue and expenses remained practically unchanged from the previous year.
The operating ratio (operating expenses divided by operating revenue) remained unchanged at 0.95 in the fourth quarter compared with the same quarter a year earlier. A ratio greater than 1.00 represents an operating loss.
Note: With few exceptions, additions and deletions to the top carriers are done only for the first quarter of each calendar year, while the composition of a top carrier may change at any time due to acquisitions or divestitures. Year-over-year variations in revenues and expenses may arise from changes to the mix of companies included in the top carriers and/or changes in the financial results reported by individual carriers.
The revenues and expenses attributed to top carriers may also include that of some companies with less than $25 million in annual revenue, particularly when these companies exist in complex corporate structures where their individual activities may be difficult to accurately measure.
This will be the final release of top carriers data from the Quarterly Motor Carriers of Freight Survey. Following release of the fourth quarter 2008 all carriers data around the end of May, the Quarterly Motor Carriers of Freight Survey will be discontinued.
Beginning with the first quarter of 2009, this survey will be replaced by the Quarterly Trucking Survey, from which a first data release is expected around the end of June.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 2748.
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact the Dissemination Unit (toll-free 1-866-500-8400; fax: 613-951-0009; transportationstatistics@statcan.gc.ca), Transportation Division.
