Most goods are shipped by road. It is estimated that over 160 OOO trucks transport millions of tonnes of goods every year. This industry includes truck ing by shippers working on their own account and tru cking carried out for others, operated by public carriers. Agriculture, forests, mines, construction, wholesale and retail trade, food and beverages are sectors in which carriers working on their own account predominate. Transport for the account of others is divided between general transport, which includes all types of industrial and commercial goods, and the transport of loose bulk materials, such as lumber, stone and sand, usually carried in a dump dolly. There are over 8000 firms active in the Quebec general transport industry, with sales evaluated at $2.2 billion in 1990, whereas the sales figure for bulk trucking was close to $470 million in that year. It is estimated that the economic importance of transport effected on one's own account is slightly greater tha n that of transport on the account of others. With regard to goods transportation, the principal role of the department consists in regulatory supervision of the road transport industry in economic and technical matters, encompassing questions of safety, equity, protection of road infrastructures and safeguarding the environment, which require rigorous control. The department exercises such control primarily by means of information and encouraging road users to use the highway network more wisely. To protect road infrastructures, the department has established rules governing vehicle loads and sizes, which have been revised to strike a balance between commercial interests and the need to limit damage to the network caused by heavy vehicles, and the risks to safety from outsized loads and vehi c les. Furthermore, they are designed to harmonize with the rules of the other Canadian provinces and American states with a view to facilitating trade. Among the factors that particularly affect road transportation is the economic deregulation of transport that took place in Canada in 1987. Its direct effect was increased co mpetition in this industry. The department has therefore to provide support for the industry while maintaining safety and the road network by tightening load controls, controlling driving time, requiring mechanical inspection, and so on. It also keeps an eye on the movement of goods in urban centres and is promoting the integration of transport modes, especially in the Montreal region. A second factor in Quebec trucking is the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement, signed in 1991, and the entrance of Mexico in 1994 into the trading market thereby created. The result is an increase in north-south trade with the northeastern states, at the expense of traditional east-west trade, which is usually over greater distances and therefore carried on by rail. A freer market would thus be of advantage to the transport of goods by road and the institution of new north-south distribution systems. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting