Image description: Road Transportation Network
The map of Canada shows the location of the National Highway System (NHS). The NHS includes over 38,000 kilometres of Canada’s most important highways from coast to coast. Core routes (which represent 72.8 per cent of the NHS) are illustrated by orange lines, Feeder routes (which represent 11.7% of the NHS) by Yellow lines and Northern and Remote routes (which represent 15.5 per cent of the NHS) by purple lines.
Key traffic and volume statistics
Roads are the main way we move freight and passengers across Canada. Canada’s highways run from the Pacific to Atlantic coasts, anchored by the Trans-Canada Highway. Canada also has large road networks across southern, more populated areas.
In 2022, 26.3 million road motor vehicles were registered in Canada. This is up 0.3% from 2021 and 14.3% from 2013. Around 91.7% were vehicles that weighed less than 4,535 kilograms, mainly passenger automobiles, pickups, SUVs, and minivans. 5.1% were medium and heavy trucks weighing 4,500 kilograms or more. 3.2% were other vehicles such as buses, motorcycles and mopeds.
As of December 2023, there were 146,248 trucking businesses. 54,080 of these companies had employees and 92,168 didn’t. The trucking industry includes many small for-hire carriers and owner-operators, and some medium and large for-hire companies that operate fleets of trucks and offer logistic services. Trucking companies are mostly located in Ontario (49.7%), Quebec (14.2%), Alberta (14.6%), and British Columbia (10.4%).