Canadian Vehicle Survey 2007 Summary Report

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Chapter 4. Heavy vehicles: Medium and heavy trucks

This chapter examines the heavy vehicle category. Heavy vehicles made up more than 3 percent of the vehicles on Canadian roads in 2007. More than 9 percent of the vehicle-kilometres travelled in Canada were by heavy vehicles. The heavy vehicles’ fleet consists of medium and heavy trucks, as follows:

• medium trucks: trucks weighing between 4 500 and 15 000 kilograms (kg)
  
  
• heavy trucks: trucks weighing more than 15 000 kg

4.1 Configuration: Heavy vehicles

Vehicle configuration is a key characteristic of the medium and heavy trucks driven on Canadian roads. A straight truck is a complete unit (i.e. a power unit and a box/flat bed that cannot be detached). A tractor, on the other hand, is composed of a cab accompanied by a trailer (detachable) and is typically used for long-distance hauls.

In the medium truck category, straight trucks accounted for more than 75 percent of the total distance travelled in 2007, as shown in Figure 4.1a. Medium trucks are not typically used in combination with trailers. As well, they are commonly used for shorter and/or local hauls.

Heavy trucks are used in a greater variety of configurations. Figure 4.1b shows the proportion of vehicle-kilometres travelled by heavy trucks based on configuration. Tractors with one trailer account for two thirds of the vehicle-kilometres travelled by heavy trucks, followed by straight trucks (16 percent).

From 2005 to 2007, there was a 4 percent reduction in the use of tractors pulling two trailers. Although the distance travelled by these “road trains” doubled from 2000 to 2005, a decline followed. A possible explanation for this trend comes from the following:

• rising diesel prices
  
  
• the use of alternative transportation methods (e.g. straight trucks increased their distance travelled by 17 percent from 2005 to 2007)
  
  
• railway trains being used for longer hauls more frequently
  
  
• provincial restrictions on where and when road trains may operate

Vehicle configuration is important to the fuel efficiency of medium and heavy trucks. According to an Environment Canada report on atmospheric emissions in the trucking industry, the use of tractors with two or more trailers could benefit fuel consumption. The efficiency of heavy trucks increases with the total weight of the load. This means that less energy is consumed per tonne-kilometre when the weight of the transported merchandise is increased. Road trains can consume relatively less energy per tonne of merchandise transported because their transport capacity is greater than that of trucks with only one trailer.⁶

Figure 4.2 shows that diesel consumption by tractors pulling two trailers is higher than that of tractors pulling only one trailer by only one litre per 100 kilometres (1 L/100 km). Given that their transport capacity is nearly double that of trucks with just one trailer, road trains consume less diesel per tonne of merchandise transported.⁷ From 2000 to 2007, average diesel consumption rates among heavy trucks dropped significantly (9 L/100 km). With further technological advancements in fuel efficiency and the trucking industry, diesel consumption rates should continue to improve.

4.2 Trip purpose for heavy vehicles

In 2007, service calls and the transport of goods and equipment were the main reasons for heavy vehicle trips in Canada, as shown in Table 4.1. However, slightly more than 13 percent of the vehicle-kilometres travelled by heavy trucks occurred when the trucks were empty. Given that not all trips were completed with a full load, it can be concluded that a significant percentage of the distance travelled in 2007 was not optimal for fuel consumption. Given that the performance of a heavy vehicle fleet is determined by the amount of fuel consumed per tonne of goods transported, reducing the distance travelled when a vehicle has no goods would benefit fuel efficiency. From 2000 to 2007, the percentage of vehicle-kilometres travelled by medium trucks while empty increased from 5.8 percent to 6.2 percent. Heavy trucks witnessed a slight decrease over the period, from 13.6 percent to 13.2 percent.

Table 4.1 Trip purpose for medium and heavy trucks, 2000 and 2007

	Vehicle-kilometres (millions)
	Medium trucks		Heavy trucks
Year	2000	2007	2000	2007
Trip purpose
Service call	686.2 C	1 676.4 D	730.9 E	1 460.9 C
Carrying goods or equipment	2 952.2 B	3 671.2 C	15 474.1 A	17 627.2 B
Empty	343.8 D	506.2 E	2 803.1 B	3 155.4 C
Other work purpose	324.2 C	554.0 E	258.4 E	508.8 E
Driving to work	1 600.9 B	1 702.8 E	1 306.2 D	978.2 E
Total	5 930.2 A	8 149.7 B	20 715.9 A	23 921.6 A

The letter to the right of each estimate indicates its quality: A – Excellent, B – Very good, C – Good,
D – Acceptable, E – Use with caution and F – Too unreliable to be published.

Due to rounding, the numbers in the tables may not add up, and some data may differ slightly from one table to the next.

4.3 Heavy vehicle activity

Most truck traffic on Canadian roads is related to one of the following activities:

• for-hire trucking – a company that transports goods as its principal activity
  
  
• private trucking – a company that transports goods as a secondary activity that is part of the distribution process of its primary output
  
  
• owner-operators – people who transport goods either independently or for one of the above-mentioned companies

Table 4.2 shows the number of medium and heavy trucks in the 2007 CVS based on their type of activity. (For a description of in-scope vehicles, see Annex D, Glossary.)

Table 4.2 Number of in-scope vehicles and vehicle-kilometres for medium and heavy trucks by activity type, 2007

	Number of vehicles		Vehicle-kilometres (millions)
Activity type	Medium trucks	Heavy trucks	Medium trucks	Heavy trucks
For-hire	– F	142 575 D	1 549.2 E	13 555.8 B
Owner-operator	64 361 E	76 328 E	1 357.5 E	5 616.3 B
Private	197 218 D	64 796 E	3 792.8 C	3 219.7 C
Other	74 417 E	– F	1 411.0 D	1 338.7 D
Total	392 608 B	314 877 B	8 149.7 B	23 921.6 A

The letter to the right of each estimate indicates its quality: A – Excellent, B – Very good, C – Good,
D – Acceptable, E – Use with caution and F – Too unreliable to be published.

Due to rounding, the numbers in the tables may not add up, and some data may differ slightly from one table to the next.

Figure 4.3 shows the distance travelled by heavy vehicles according to activity type.

Private trucking accounted for almost half of the distance travelled by medium trucks in 2007. This activity type usually consists of companies that handle the distribution of their products by using their own vehicles. The heavy truck category, meanwhile, was dominated by for-hire and owner-operated trucking. These two types accounted for more than 80 percent (19 172 113 807 km) of the distance travelled by heavy trucks.

Table 4.3 provides the total fuel consumption and fuel consumption rate of heavy vehicles. The fuel consumption rate, especially in heavy trucks, seems to be affected by activity type. In 2007, heavy trucks belonging to for-hire trucking firms or owner-operators consumed less diesel per 100 km than those belonging to private firms.

Table 4.3 Diesel consumption rate and total fuel consumption for medium and heavy trucks by activity type, 2007

	Diesel consumption rate (L/100 km)		Diesel consumed (millions of L)
Activity type	Medium trucks	Heavy trucks	Medium trucks	Heavy trucks
For-hire	21.6 C	33.7 A	301.3 E	4 559.8 B
Owner-operator	23.7 C	35.3 A	277.6 E	1 985.2 B
Private	24.2 B	36.9 A	695.9 D	1 161.5 C
Other	24.4 C	38.3 B	279.7 E	512.3 D
Average & Total	23.5 A	34.5 A	1 554.5 B	8 218.8 A

The letter to the right of each estimate indicates its quality: A – Excellent, B – Very good, C – Good,
D – Acceptable, E – Use with caution and F – Too unreliable to be published.

Due to rounding, the numbers in the tables may not add up, and some data may differ slightly from one table to the next.

4.4 Age of heavy vehicles

The heavy vehicle fleet was similar to the light vehicle fleet in age distribution. Medium trucks, however, were older than other categories of vehicles in 2007. As a result, there were more medium trucks over 10 years of age in 2007. Figures 4.4a and 4.4b show that the percentage of vehicles that were five years old and less was similar for medium and heavy trucks.

Figures 4.5a and 4.5b show that newer vehicles were used the most in medium trucks and heavy trucks in 2007. Differences emerged for older vehicles. Vehicles over 10 years of age accounted for only 13 percent of the distance travelled by heavy trucks, but accounted for 18 percent of the distance travelled by medium trucks.

The age of medium trucks affects the fleet’s fuel efficiency. Figure 4.6 reveals that older vehicles usually consumed more fuel per 100 km than newer vehicles. For both medium and heavy trucks, the diesel consumption rate among vehicles older than 10 years was higher (by approximately 5 L/100 km) than the average consumption of the fleet. As a result, it is apparent that newer heavy vehicles will have improved diesel consumption rates more than older ones, resulting in an overall increase in fuel efficiency.

⁶ Environment Canada. Trucks and Air Emissions. Ottawa, September 2001.

⁷ In-depth tonne-kilometre information is not available in the CVS.

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