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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Province's trucking industry punching above its weight

By: Martin Cash

Posted: 09/8/2011 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

Considering the combination of Manitoba's particularly large trucking industry and the province's predisposition to spring flooding, it is a surprisingly well adjusted industry.

For instance, John Spacek, assistant deputy minister of Manitoba Infrastructure and Transportation, told a trucking industry get-together this week that flooding this year damaged 31 bridges requiring $75 million in immediate repairs.

Every year, passage along the province's main artery into the United States risks being disrupted and often is, causing costly and time-consuming detours.

But industry players know there are great demands on the public purse and understand that their wish-list of infrastructure work is likely never to be completed.

And the industry keeps growing, despite notoriously thin profit margins and an economic recovery that looks increasingly weak, especially south of the border.

Five of the top 50 trucking companies in the country are based in Manitoba. While that number may have been higher in the past, the Manitoba industry continues to punch above its weight, accounting for more than five per cent of the national industry (and only about three per cent of the population).

Manitoba's bragging rights as an exporting economy rely on the trucking sector. About 80 per cent of the close to $9 billion in exports from Manitoba to the United States is hauled by trucks.

One industry official said, "There is plenty of competition in the industry, but when it gets down to industry issues, people regularly work together and speak their minds."

Many locally owned firms continue to grow, but only with attention to efficiencies and productivity.

At a National Trucking Week event held Wednesday by the Manitoba Trucking Association, drivers and company owners mingled with information-technology vendors, financial-services advisers, customs brokers and members of the Winnipeg police vehicle inspection unit.

The increasing sophistication of the industry -- and its integration into just about every wealth-creating element of the economy -- is something that the general public likely takes for granted, but might otherwise be thankful for.

Our lifestyle and economic well-being are increasingly dependent on a well functioning trucking industry.

For instance, the province's strong agricultural industry is well known and to some extent defines who we are.

But at about 30,000 people, the trucking industry employs more people than the more famous ag industry.

And those positions act as powerful job multipliers. Industry officials say there are about seven spinoff jobs for every 10 direct trucking-industry hires.

And of course, there is no entitlement to any of those jobs. They are at the mercy of the volatility that every one of their customers experiences.

That's why it's so impressive to hear local company owners talk about how, despite parity between the Canadian and U.S. dollars and a struggling U.S. economy, cross-border business is growing.

Jason Dubois, president of Len Dubois Trucking Inc., said he couldn't totally explain it, but his trucks are spending more time south of the border.

He said that in the early part of the last decade, when the dollar was much lower and the economy stronger, anyone could operate a trucking business.

That's not the case now and there have been local casualties along the way.

But there is plenty of institutional knowledge of the industry that resides in the province. Over the years, the University of Manitoba has broadened its logistics programs. Manitoba companies are at the forefront of innovation in operational fuel efficiency.

So even if the roads are not the best or most reliable, more money has been committed to roadway work in the province lately than had been the case for many years prior to that.

There is plenty more of that work left to do. But enough gets done, and in combination with the goodwill that exists among industry players, a long-standing sector that has prospered in Manitoba continues to be able to do so.

martin.cash@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 8, 2011 B5

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