Market analysis of heavy-duty commercial trailers in Canada
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WORKING PAPER 2017-2
Market analysis of heavy-duty commercial
trailers in Canada
Date: 9 March 2017
Author: Ben Sharpe
Keywords: commercial trailer sales, Canada, market shares, trailer-to-tractor ratio, activity rates, ownership cycles,
annual kilometers
1. Introduction some form of fuel efficiency or GHG importers will be included in the final
regulation for heavy-duty commercial rule, which is expected to be released
Worldwide, freight vehicles are a
trucks and buses. In addition, the gov- by the summer of 2016.
major and growing contributor to
ernments of India, Brazil, South Korea,
fuel consumption and climate change The Government of Canada has
Mexico, and the European Union are
emissions in the on-road transportation committed to align its emission
actively developing policy measures
sector. In the 2020 to 2030 time frame, standards and test procedures for
to accelerate the adoption of fuel-
on-road heavy-duty vehicle emissions the transportation sector with those
saving technologies for commercial
will become approximately equivalent of the federal emissions program
vehicle fleets.
to those of on-road passenger car and of the U.S. Environment Protection
light trucks, currently the largest overall The U.S. and Canadian 1 Phase 1 Agency (EPA), as set out in the
contributor to climate change within heavy-duty vehicle GHG programs Ozone Annex to the Canada-U.S.
the transport sector (International are currently being phased in from Air Quality Agreement (2000), and
Council on Clean Transportation 2016). model-year (MY) 2014 to 2018 vehicles in the mandate and principles of the
In North America and many regions and can be thought of as four rules Canada‑U.S. Regulatory Cooperation
around the world, the majority of combined into one regulation. There Council. Given that Canada has a long
goods that are transported by road history of harmonizing its vehicle reg-
are distinct provisions for the four
are borne by heavy-duty combination ulations as much as possible with the
primary regulatory subcategories:
tractor-trailers. As a result, tractor- U.S., Environment and Climate Change
on-road tractors, pickup trucks and
trailers often account for the largest Canada commissioned this market
vans, vocational vehicles, and engines
percentage of vehicle-kilometers study along with a previous research
of on-road tractors and vocational
traveled and thus fuel consumption and project that looked at the costs
vehicles. The Phase 1 heavy-duty
emissions from heavy-duty vehicles. In and adoption rates of heavy-duty
vehicle programs in both countries
Canada, tractor-trailers are estimated commercial trailer fuel-saving tech-
delayed the incorporation of trailers
to represent nearly two-thirds of the nologies in Canada (Sharpe and May
within the rulemaking owing to a
total diesel fuel use and greenhouse 2015) as part of its due diligence to
number of constraints at the time. investigate the feasibility of integrat-
gas (GHG) emissions from the on-road
However, in the proposed U.S. Phase ing these trailers into its Phase 2
heavy-duty sector (ibid).
2 regulation that was published in program, as was formally proposed
In response to the growing fuel con- June 2015, heavy-duty commercial in the U.S. This particular paper is
sumption and GHG emissions from trailers are included as a new major narrowly focused on the trailer market
commercial vehicles, many govern- e q u i p m e n t c a te g o r y, a n d i t i s in Canada. Its primary objectives are
ments around the world have begun anticipated that these new require- to: (1) analyze the sales market for
to take targeted steps to promote ments for trailer manufacturers and new commercial trailers; and (2) use
fuel-saving technologies within their anecdotal data from industry experts
heavy-duty vehicle fleets. Since 2006, 1 In early 2013, Canada published standards to estimate typical ownership cycles
for heavy-duty vehicles that are fully
Japan, California, the United States, harmonized with the U.S. program in all and activity rates for various types of
China, and Canada have adopted significant aspects of regulatory design. trailers. As such, the remainder of the
Acknowledgements: This work is funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada. The author thanks all of the companies that were gracious enough
to take the time to participate in the interviews for this study. Also, we are very grateful for the excellent reviews of officials from Environment and Climate
Change Canada’s Transportation Division and Regulatory Analysis and Valuation Divison, and the valuable contributions of Oscar Delgado of the ICCT.
© INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION, 2016 WWW.THEICCT.ORGMARKET ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-DUTY COMMERCIAL TRAILERS IN CANADA
report is organized into two sections: Table 1: Deficiencies in the trailer sales data and mitigation measures
• Section 2 provides an overview Issue Mitigation measure
of the heavy-duty commercial Both datasets included ‘personal
Information about each of the 184 unique manufacturer/
trailer market in Canada in terms use’ trailers, which include
importer’s product lines and customer types were
trailers that are generally towed
of sales by province, manufac- acquired by surveying their websites. After reviewing
by pickup trucks or small
all of this online information, it was determined that
turer/importer market shares, commercial vehicles. These types
companies generally sell to either heavy-duty trucking
types of trailers sold, and the of trailers are typically used
fleets or for light-duty personal use—not both. As
to haul equipment, passenger
ratio of trailers to tractors. vehicles, livestock, and various
such, each manufacturer/importer was identified as
either commercial or non-commercial, and only the
• Section 3 summarizes the data other items. These trailers are not
commercial sales are included in this analysis.
hauled by heavy-duty tractors.
on trailer ownership and activity
Sales for Quebec were adjusted as follows. The author
patterns from interviews with
had access to data showing total tractor sales by
trucking fleets, manufacturers/ Compared to the national
province for 2010 to 2014. (ENVIRON EC (Canada) Inc.
total, the reported trailer
importers, and other industry sales in Quebec for all years
2015). Provision of Estimates of Historical Sales and
experts. Registrations and of Forecast Sales of New On-Road
are significantly lower than
Heavy-Duty Vehicles in Canada. Mississauga, ON. For
is plausible, given Quebec’s
each year (2005-2014), the average ratio of estimated
population and economic
2. O
verview of Canada’s importance in Canada.
tractor sales in Quebec compared to Ontario for 2010-
2014 were multiplied by trailer sales in Ontario to yield
trailer sales market estimated trailer sales in Quebec.
The Canada trailer market sales data The ratio of trailer sales in Manitoba to sales in Ontario
Sales in Manitoba for years 2012
for 2011 are multipled by trailer sales in Ontario for
referenced in this paper include to 2014 drop off considerably (by
2012, 2013, and 2014 to yield estimated trailer sales in
calendar years 2005 through 2014. ~ 95%) versus 2005 to 2011.
Manitoba for those three years.
Two datasets were acquired from Due to such a high degree of uncertainty in this dataset,
In the second dataset, trailer
IHS Automotive. The first dataset the author decided not to use this trailer type data in
type is labeled “unknown” or
has trailer registrations2 grouped by the analysis. As described in more detail in Section 2.2,
is unspecified for nearly half of
the percentages of sales by trailer type for the United
manufacturer/importer and postal total sales.
States are used to estimate the breakdown for Canada.
code. The second dataset groups
U.S. data for trailer sales by length provides reasonable
trailers into 35 distinct trailer types Neither dataset has trailer first-order estimates for the percentage of sales within
and presents annual sales for each of length data. each length category by trailer type. See Figure 3-1 in
these categories. The second dataset (Sharpe, Clark et al. 2013).
also has aggregated totals of Class
8 (i.e., gross vehicle weight rating
greater than 33,000 pounds) tractor
and trailer sales.
Though these datasets are helpful in NUNAVUT
providing valuable information about TERRITORIES
heavy-duty commercial trailer sales YUKON
TERRITORY
in Canada, a number of shortcomings
were found, which are summarized
NORTHWEST
in Table 1. TERRITORIES
Having adjusted the sales totals
BRITISH
for Q u eb ec a n d M ani to b a, t he COLUMBIA NEWFOUNDLAND
breakdown of percentage sales of AND LABRADOR
trailers by province in 2014 is shown ALBERTA
in Figure 1. Together, Ontario, Quebec,
MANITOBA
and Alberta represent over 80% of
QUEBEC
commercial trailer sales in Canada. SASKATCHEWAN
Sales for each of the remaining ONTARIO PRINCE
provinces are 7% or less, with the EDWARD
three territories accounting for only ISLAND
NOVA
a negligible portion of overall sales.
NEW SCOTIA
BRUNSWICK
2 In this analysis, registrations are used as a
proxy for sales. This dataset was created by
amassing registration data from the various Figure 1: Percentage of trailer sales by province in 2014
motor vehicle bureaus in each province.
2 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION WORKING PAPER 2016-7MARKET ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-DUTY COMMERCIAL TRAILERS IN CANADA
As shown in Figure 2, nearly 33,000 35,000
trailers were sold in Canada in 2014.
In recent years, the market has
recovered from the roughly 50% drop 30,000
in sales due to the global economic
crisis of 2008-2009.
25,000
2.1 MANUFACTURER/IMPORTER
Annual Sales
MARKET SHARES 20,000
The sales of the top 10 commercial
trailer manufacturers/importers 15,000
between 2005 and 2014 are shown in
Figure 2. In this figure, the manufac-
turers/importers are ordered in terms 10,000
of cumulative sales over the 10-year
study period, with the market leader
5,000
on the bottom and then decreasing in
market share moving up the figure. In
terms of cumulative sales, Manac led 0
all manufacturers/importers with 15% 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
of total sales, with a maximum market
share of 27% in 2008 and a minimum Remaining manufacturers Vanguard National Great Dane Trailers
of 8% in 2012. This 19 percentage point Trailer Corp.
Hyundai Translead Stoughton Trailers
swing in market share was second Lode King
Doepker Utility Trailer
only to Stoughton, which had a 24 Wabash National Corp.
percentage point difference between Max – Atlas Manac Inc.
their maximum in 2007 (28%) and
Figure 2: Annual trailer sales by manufacturer/importer, 2005 – 2014
their lowest share in 2014 (4%). In
2005, Utility Trailer was the market 2014 2005 – 2014
leader at 13% of total sales, and Great
9%
Dane, Manac, and Stoughton followed 14%
closely behind with 11%, 11%, and 10% 29% 25%
9%
of sales, respectively. Between 2005
and 2014, Hyundai Translead’s market
share grew significantly (from 1% 4% 12%
to 12%), and by 2014 they were the 4%
top-selling trailer maker in Canada.
3%
The other manufacturer/importer 5%
that saw significant growth in sales 4% 9%
was Vanguard, with its market share
6% 5%
increasing from 2% in 2005 to 10% 12%
in 2014, which put this company 6% 8%
in second place behind Hyundai 5% 10%
7% 7% 7%
Translead. Combined, the market
share of the top ten manufactur-
Manac Inc. Wabash National Corp. Max – Atlas
ers/importers was 73% in 2005 and
remained relatively stable over the Utility Trailer Lode King Doepker
10-year period and was 72% in 2014. Stoughton Trailers Vanguard National Hyundai Translead
Trailer Corp.
I n F i g u re 3 , t h e m a r ke t s h a re Great Dane Trailers Remaining manufacturers
breakdowns for 2014 are shown in the Figure 3: Manufacturer/importer market shares for new commercial trailer sales
chart on the left, while the chart on
the right chart shows the manufac- The average annual registrations/ shown in Table 2. The right column
turer/importer sales percentages for sales between 2005 and 2014 for the lists the primary types of trailers sold
the entire 10-year period. top ten manufacturers/importers are by each manufacturer. For seven of
WORKING PAPER 2016-7 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION 3MARKET ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-DUTY COMMERCIAL TRAILERS IN CANADA
the ten manufacturers/importers, Table 2: The top ten trailer manufacturers/importers in Canada
box-type trailers (i.e., dry and refrig-
Average Annual
erated box van trailers) represent Manufacturer/ New Registrations Rank in
the largest portion of their business importer (2005-2014) 2014 Primary types of trailers sold
(Sharpe, Clark et al. 2013). As such, Dry and refrigerated box van,
Manac 4,058 4
as is discussed in more detail in the flatbed, specialty
following section, box-type trailers are Dry and refrigerated box van,
Utility Trailer 3,274 3
estimated to account for the majority flatbed
of sales in Canada, as in the U.S. Dry box van, grain, drop frame
Stoughton Trailers 2,497 10
van
Just as the manufacturing, import/ Dry and refrigerated box van,
export, and sales of vehicles is Great Dane Trailers 2,283 9
flatbed
highly integrated between Canada Dry and refrigerated box van,
Wabash National 1,869 7
and the U.S., the same is true for flatbed, tanker
the commercial trailer market. In Lode King 1,841 6 Grain, flatbed, drop frame van
interviews with industry experts, they Vanguard National 1,611 2 Dry box van, container chassis
indicated that supply chains, distribu-
Max-Atlas 1,366 5 Container chassis
tion, sales, and support networks are
Doepker 1,274 8 Grain, flatbed, forestry
highly interconnected between the
two neighboring countries. This is Dry and refrigerated box van,
Hyundai Transled 793 1
container chassis
reflected in the sales data, as six out
of the top ten companies operating in
Table 3: Length breakdown of new commercial trailer sales in the U.S. between 2003
Canada are also in the top ten in the
and 2011
U.S. However, the four manufacturers
in Canada (i.e., Manac, Lode King, Trailer category < 40 ft. 40 – 52 ft. 53 ft. > 53 ft. Total
Max-Atlas, and Doepker) have the Dry box van trailers 20.3% 9.7% 69.8% 0.2% 100%
large majority of their sales in Canada Refrigerated box van
and have a much smaller presence in 16.3% 16.1% 67.3% 0.3% 100%
trailers
the U.S. Non-box trailers 29.2% 53.9% 14.0% 2.9% 100%
2.2 SALES BY TRAILER TYPE 2,067
555
6%
801 2%
From conversations with seven man-
2%
ufacturers, fleets, and other industry 950
3%
experts, a common message was that Dry box van
1,070
the distribution of sales of various 15,377
3% Refrigerated box van
types of trailers is fairly similar in 47%
2,210 Flatbed
Canada and the U.S. Therefore, rather 7%
than relying on the highly uncertain Container chassis
Canadian data file with sales by trailer
Grain
type, the author determined that the
percentage breakdowns for sales in Dump
2,965
the U.S. is a reasonable first-order 9% Tanker
approximation for Canada. The sales Lowbed
by trailer type data for the U.S. (for
2003-2011) is much more robust than Other
the Canadian data. In that U.S. file,
6,910
only about 2% of sales are unspeci- 21%
fied, compared to around 40% for
the Canadian file. See Figure 3-2 in Figure 4: Trailer sales by type in 2014, assuming the identical breakdown of sales by
(Sharpe, Clark et al. 2013). type as in the U.S. between 2003 and 2011
Applying the sales by trailer type are the most common type of trailer second-highest selling type of trailer
percentages from the U.S. to the in the market, representing roughly at about one-fifth of total sales.
Canadian sales totals yield the values half of total sales. Refrigerated Together, these box-type trailers
shown in Figure 4 for sales in 2014. As box van trailers (refrigerated vans make up just over two-thirds of the
shown, dry box van trailers (dry vans) or “reefers”) follow dry vans as the market, with specialty trailers such
4 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION WORKING PAPER 2016-7MARKET ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-DUTY COMMERCIAL TRAILERS IN CANADA
as flatbeds, container chassis, grain, 35,000 2.50
dump, and tanker trailers making up
Trailer-to-tractor sales ratio
the remaining one-third of sales. 30,000
2.00
Trailer length is also a parameter that 25,000
Annual sales
was missing from the dataset, thus 20,000 1.50
the U.S. data can again be used as
a reasonable first-order approxima- 15,000 1.00
tion for the Canadian market. Table
3 summarizes the length breakdown 10,000
0.50
for three major commercial trailer 5,000
categories. For both dry and refriger-
ated box van trailers, nearly 70% of 0 0.00
new sales are 53 feet (ft.), and the 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
remaining 30% of new sales (approxi- Tractors Trailers Sales ratio
mately) are trailers shorter than 53
ft. Trailers longer than 53 ft. only Figure 5: Tractor truck and trailer sales, 2005 – 2014
represent a marginal (i.e., less than
0.3%) portion of box trailer sales. As account for the fact that there are 2 proposal (U.S. Environmental
shown, non-box trailers tend to be three trailers for every tractor in the Protection Agency 2015).
shorter, on average, than box trailers, fleet, and thus the average annual
vehicle kilometers traveled (VKT) for One of the objectives of this study
with almost 85% of sales being less
tractors is three times as large as that is to analyze trailer-to-tractor sales
than 53 ft. in length.
of trailers. and stock ratios for Canada’s trucking
The ICCT recommends that fleet. Figure 5 shows sales of tractors
future research be aimed towards Therefore, since the value assumed and trailers between 2005 and 2014.
developing a more accurate Canada- for this ratio has such a critical The red data point for each year is the
specific breakdown of sales by trailer impact on the economics of trucking ratio of trailers to tractors sold. This
type and length. operations, it is important that sales ratio ranged from 1.2 in 2005 to
policymakers have a reasonably 2.1 in 2009, and over the 10-year period
good assessment of the average the ratio of cumulative sales was 1.6.
2.3 TRAILER-TO-TRACTOR trailer-to-tractor in-use and sales This value of 1.6 is comparable to the
RATIOS ratios so that the costs and benefits average trailer-to-tractor sales ratio in
In North America and many regions estimated in a regulation targeting the U.S. between 1986 and 2011, which
around the world, trailers are typically both tractors and trailers adequately was 1.7 (R.L Polk & Co. 2012). For the
paired with numerous different on-road re f l e c t co n d i t i o n s i n t h e re a l - time period over which the datasets
tractors and are often parked alone world. According to the Bureau of for the two countries overlap—that
without a tractor in order to accommo- Transportation Statistics in the U.S., is, 2005 to 2011—the trailer-to-tractor
date logistical constraints and allow for there are approximately three trailers sales ratios for Canada and the US
more efficient use of the tractor fleet. for every tractor for the entire trac- were 1.6 and 1.5, respectively.
As such, it is generally the case that tor-trailer fleet in the U.S. (Bureau
of Transportation Statistics 2010). Todaystrucking.com has maintained a
trailers far outnumber tractors.
This three-to-one in-use ratio is used database of the 100 largest trucking
Estimating the ratio of trailers-to- in both of the major studies that fleets in Canada by combined tractor
tractors is an important element of formed the basis for the U.S. Phase 1 and trailer ownership since 2001.
any analysis looking at the impacts of regulatory technology potential and (Carter 2016) The latest data from
additional technologies for tractor- cost analyses (Kromer, Bockholt et 2016 is summarized in Figures 6 and
trailers. For example, say there is a al. 2009, Committee on Assessment 7. Figure 6 is a scatter plot of the
trucking fleet that has 100 tractors of Technologies and Approaches for trailer-to-tractor ratios for all 100
and 300 trailers, and they are con- Reducing the Fuel Consumption of fleets. While the in-use ratios range
sidering a technology package that Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles widely (from 1.2 to 19.4), the large
would impose an increase of X dollars 2010, U.S. Environmental Protection majority (84%) of values are clustered
per tractor and Y dollars per trailer. Agency 2011), and this same ratio between 2 and 6. Combined, these
In their return on investment calcula- was also assumed in the trailer 100 fleets own roughly 130,000
tion, the fleet must express the total impact analysis in the U.S. Phase trailers and 43,000 tractors, which
per tractor-trailer costs as X + 3Y to yields an estimated average ratio of 3.
WORKING PAPER 2016-7 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION 5MARKET ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-DUTY COMMERCIAL TRAILERS IN CANADA
One of the reasons why this in-use 20
ratio of 3 is much higher than the
1.6 sales ratio is the fact that trailers 18
tend to have longer useful lives
16
than tractors and are often used as
parked storage devices. Also, there 14
Trailer-to-tractor ratio
are often permanent registration
options for trailers, which makes it 12
difficult to know when trailers are
taken out of service. 10
Figure 7 summarizes the trailer and 8
tractor ownership for the 25 largest
6
fleets. The value to the right of the AVERAGE = 3.0
data bars is the trailer-to-tractor 4
in-use ratio for each fleet. Transforce
is by far the largest fleet in Canada 2
and has more than double the
combined number of trailers and 0
tractors than Mullen Group, the sec-
Figure 6: Trailer-to-tractor ratios for the 100 largest trucking fleets in Canada
ond-largest carrier. Beyond the top
five fleets, the next largest 20 fleets
each own between roughly 2,000
Purolator 2.8
and 5,000 trailers and tractors. International Truckload Services 3.4
Trailers Tractors
Rosenau Transport 3.9
C.A.T./Canadian American Trans. 3.9
3. Trailer ownership and SGT 2000 4.9
Rosedale Group 2.9
activity patterns M-O Freightworks 3.5
Hyndman Transport 3.5
Quantitative data on trailer ownership H&R Transport Limited 2.9
cycles and activity patterns are Siemens Transportation Group 2.6
Westcan Bulk Transport 2.8
lacking. To address this knowledge
Kriska Transportation Group Limited 3.0
gap, the ICCT has interviewed a Transfreight, Inc. 5.3
number of experts in the Canadian Canada Cartage 1.2
Manitoulin Transport Group 3.3
trucking industry. For this project,
SLH Transport 8.6
the study team interviewed seven Groupe Robert 3.0
individuals that represent some of Challenger Motor Freight Inc. 2.2
Day & Ross Transportation Group 2.1
the leading trailer manufacturers/ Armour Transportation Systems 3.9
importers, fleets, and suppliers in Bison Transport inc 2.7
Canada. These individuals provided Trimac Transportation Services LP 3.5
TransX Ltd 3.0
their best judgment on average Mullen Group Ltd. 2.8
trailer ownership and activity (i.e., TransForce Inc. 3.1
annual kilometers) patterns. These 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000
seven responses were combined with
previous survey data of 18 companies Figure 7: Tractors and trailer owned by the 25 largest trucking fleets in Canada
that were collected by Pollution
Probe in collaboration with the ICCT and refrigerated box van trailers and When asked about the average
(Sharpe and May 2015). Together, specialty trailers, which include all duration of ownership for the first
these 25 interview responses form non-box trailers such as flatbed, tanker, owner of a dry van, responses
a diverse set of perspectives and and bulk material trailers. This three- ranged from 7 to 15 years, and the
data points that the study team used category segmentation approach most common answer was 10 years.
to create typical profiles for trailer (i.e., dry and refrigerated box van Interviewees stated that trailers are
ownership and activity, which are trailers, and non-box trailers) is the generally in long-haul operations
summarized in Figure 8. same framework that was employed and most active in terms of annual
in the trailer portion of the U.S. Phase kilometers (km) during this first
As shown in the figure, trailers are 2 GHG proposal (U.S. Environmental ownership cycle, and a reasonable
segmented in three categories: dry Protection Agency 2015). estimate is between 40,000 and
6 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION WORKING PAPER 2016-7MARKET ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-DUTY COMMERCIAL TRAILERS IN CANADA
10 20
Age (years)
DRY VANS First owner
7 – 15 years (10 avg.); 40,000 – 60,000 km/year
Second owner
~ 5 years; 20,000 – 40,000 km/year
End of life
Parked storage; sold to developing markets
REFRIGERATED TRAILERS First owner
10 – 15 years; 80,000 – 100,000 km/year
Second owner
~ 5 years; 40,000 - 70,000 km/year
End of life
Parked storage; sold to developing markets
SPECIALTY TRAILERS First owner
15 – 20 years; annual kilometers highly variable
End of life
Scrapped and/or sold for parts
Figure 8: Typical trailer ownership and activity patterns over its useful life
60,000 km per year. Typically, dry to maintain the refrigeration units, the final stage in its lifetime.
vans can be re-sold fairly easily, since survey respondents indicated that
they are not highly specialized for fleets tend to keep reefers longer Due to the tremendous variety in the
a particular payload or operational than dry vans. Another unique aspect specialty trailer market, there was less
profile. Respondents stated that dry of refrigerated van operations is that convergence in the survey responses
vans tend to go into more regional fleets with a large percentage of around ownership cycles and activity
and local service during their second reefers in their fleet tend to have a rates. However, one of the key themes
ownership cycle, and annual activity much lower trailer-to-tractor ratio about specialty trailers was that
decreases to between 20,000 and than fleets that primarily run dry these trailers are often expensive
40,000 km. Following this second vans. One respondent said that a rule to purchase and maintain, and,
ownership cycle, most interviewees of thumb is that dry van fleets have therefore, fleets generally keep them
indicated that dry vans are either trailer-to-tractor ratios between 2 for many years. On the question of
sold to developing markets (e.g., and 2.5, while reefer fleets have ratios ownership, a typical answer was that
Latin America) or used as perma- between 1.2 and 1.5. As such, the fleets keep these trailers for 15 to 20
nently parked storage. interviewees remarked that reefers years or more and use these trailers
usually travel more annual kilometers until they have little to no residual
According to Commercial Trailer than dry vans. In terms of ownership value. Average annual kilometers for
Blue Book data, an average refrig- progressions, most respondents specialty trailers are highly dependent
erated box van trailer costs about commented that a reefer follows a on the specific operational profile of
twice as much as a dry box van trailer similar path as a dry van, migrating the fleet. Consequently, most of the
(Price Digest 2012). Since reefers from high mileage service with the interviewees were hesitant to give a
are more expensive and additional first owner, to regional operations numerical range for annual kilometers
resources must be invested annually later in life, and storage or export as for this category of trailers. More
WORKING PAPER 2016-7 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION 7MARKET ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-DUTY COMMERCIAL TRAILERS IN CANADA
research is needed to determine with respect to dry vans, reefers, and Climate Change Canada and other
how activity rates vary amongst the specialty (i.e., non-box trailers) trailers. policymakers across North America
various operations of different types Combining these interview responses in their evaluation of policy measures
of specialty trailers. with ownership and activity data for heavy-duty commercial trailers.
obtained in a previous industry survey More comprehensive and granular
conducted by Pollution Probe and data are needed to sharpen the
4. Conclusions the ICCT, the study team developed knowledge of the Canadian trailer
The primary objectives of this study typical usage profiles for the three market, particularly with respect to
were to analyze the new commercial broad trailer categories, which are trailer types, lengths, and overall
trailer sales market in Canada and summarized as follows: population estimates.
build on previous research to refine
estimates for trailer ownership • F i r st ow n e r s te n d to ke e p
cycles and average activity rates. dry vans for about 10 years References
Overall, the Canadian trailer market and operate them between
Bureau of Transportation Statistics
has rebounded from the 2008-2009 40,000 and 60,000 km per
year. Second owners are then (2010). State Transportation
global economic crisis, and annual
likely to use dry vans in more Statistics. Washington, DC,
sales averaged 32,000 units between
regional routes, and annual Research and Innovative
2011 and 2014. Manac, Utility
activity is roughly cut in half. Technology Administration, U.S.
Trailer, Stoughton, Great Dane, and
After 5 to 7 years of this more Department of Transportation.
Wabash National have the largest
cumulative sales between 2005 and limited service, dry vans are Canada’s top 100 carriers: 2016.”
2014, though in recent years, sales generally sold to developing Retrieved February 3, 2016, from
for both Hyundai Translead and markets or converted to http://www.todaystrucking.com/
Vanguard National have surged, and stationary storage units. top100.
in 2014 those two companies were • Reefers follow a similar Committee on Assessment of
the market leaders. three-tier ownership and usage Technologies and Approaches
progression as dry vans, except for Reducing the Fuel
Between 2005 and 2014, cumulative
it was clear from the interview Consumption of Medium- and
sales of trailers in Canada were larger
responses that fleets primarily
than sales of tractors by a ratio of 1.6, Heavy-Duty Vehicles (2010).
operating reefers tend to have
which is quite similar to the ratio in Technologies and Approaches to
lower trailer-to-tractor ratios,
the U.S. between 2005 and 2011 (1.5). Reducing the Fuel Consumption
and thus these reefer units
For the largest 100 fleets in Canada, of Medium- and Heavy-Duty
amass more annual kilometers
the average in-use trailer-to-tractor Vehicles. Washington, DC,
with their first (80,000 to
ratio is 3, but values ranged widely— National Research Council of the
100,000 km) and second
from 1.2 to 19.4. National tractor and National Academies.
(40,000 to 70,000 km) owners.
trailer registration totals are needed
ENVIRON EC (Canada) Inc. (2015).
to determine whether this value of 3 • Given the remarkable diversity
Provision of Estimates of
is reasonably accurate for the entire w i t h i n t h e n o n - b ox t ra i l e r
c a te g o r y, i t i s d i f f i c u l t to Historical Sales and Registrations
Canadian fleet. More research is
establish a uniform ownership and of Forecast Sales of New
needed to determine the number of
and usage profile that applies On-Road Heavy-Duty Vehicles in
total commercial trailers in Canada,
since the Statistics Canada data for across the entire group. Canada. Mississauga, ON.
trailer registrations includes personal Nevertheless, a common theme International Council on Clean
use trailers that are used in the f ro m t h e re s p o n d e n t s wa s Transportation. (2016). “Global
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more expensive to purchase Retrieved February 8, 2016, from
Interviews were conducted with and maintain, and thus, fleets http://www.theicct.org/global-
seven Canadian trucking industry tend to keep these trailers for transportation-roadmap-model.
experts with the primary objective the large majority or all of their
of collecting information about useful life, which can be 15 to 20 Kromer, M., W. Bockholt and M.
ownership and activity patterns over years or more. Jackson (2009). Assessment
the useful lifetimes of trailers. These of Fuel Economy Technologies
survey respondents were asked about This project will provide data and for Medium- and Heavy- Duty
typical trailer usage behavior for fleets analysis to assist Environment and Vehicles. Cupertino, CA, TIAX LLC.
8 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION WORKING PAPER 2016-7MARKET ANALYSIS OF HEAVY-DUTY COMMERCIAL TRAILERS IN CANADA
Price Digest (2012). Commercial Sharpe, B. and D. May (2015). Costs U.S. Environmental Protection
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R.L Polk & Co. (2012). New
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Commercial Class 8 Tractor
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increased heavy-duty vehicle
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a26?lang=eng&id=4050004. Medium- and Heavy-Duty Engines
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WORKING PAPER 2016-7 INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL ON CLEAN TRANSPORTATION 9You can also read
