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Sep 9, 2005 7:27 AM

Even before the United States was struck by Hurricane Katrina, the Canadian trucking industry was "shaping up to be a bit of a retreat from the buoyant performance of 2003-04," according to David Bradley, Canadian Trucking Alliance president.

Despite the softening of economic activity in most of Canada, only a matter of time remains before the reality of continued cost increases for trucking labor, fuel, and equipment set in and are fully passed on, he said.

"The driver shortage is only going to get worse, and barring a complete collapse in the North American economy, this will absorb any capacity that might be freed up," Bradley said

“Shippers who want to maintain a high level of transportation service, know that it is unrealistic to expect carriers who know their costs to be able to eat the kinds of operating cost increases we are presently experiencing. Those who don’t know their costs might try to undercut the market in an attempt to stay afloat, but they will not be around for long. It’s in no one’s interest to see those carriers drag the good companies down with them.”