Performance indicators - Transportation Data and Information Hub

Source: Transport Canada, Electronic Collection of Air Transportation Statistics (ECATS) database, International Air Transport Association (IATA) database.

Definition: The air cargo capacity utilization index is calculated by dividing the total revenue tonnes of cargo by the total capacity. The total capacity is calculated by multiplying the amount of weight that each aircraft can carry by the number of scheduled flights taken on that route. Only scheduled passenger aircraft and only direct flights are counted in this number. The aircraft capacity measures weight only, not volume.

Importance: The number gives an indication of the cargo capacity use for scheduled flights and how much capacity is not used in case it is needed at some point.

Source: Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) websites.

Definition: A revenue tonne-kilometre is the movement of one tonne of freight that the railway earns revenue from over one kilometre of track. This number includes only the weight of the cargo and not the weight of equipment.

Importance: The number gives an indication of the output activity done by CN and CP for their North American operations.

Source: Canadian National Railway (CN) and Canadian Pacific (CP) websites.

Definition: The carloads count includes the count of each rail car used for non-containerized shipments (non-intermodal traffic) and each container or trailer (intermodal unit) for intermodal shipments. Most intermodal shipments are in containers.

Importance: The number gives an indication of the output activity by CN and CP on the basis of cars, containers and trailers for their North American operations.

Source: Weekly rail system performance indicator, by type of rail car. Published by Statistics Canada.

Definition: Cars online is the average of the daily inventory of freight cars for Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific (CP), Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) and CSXT that are in service running on Canadian railway tracks.

Importance: The number gives an indication of the size of fleet online for the four reporting railways.

Source: Canadian Grain Commission reported by the Grain Monitor for the prairie grain handling and transportation system.

Definition: The number counts the covered hopper car unloads at licensed terminal elevators at Thunder Bay, Vancouver and Prince Rupert.

Importance: The number gives an indication of the grain volumes moving to Western ports in the month.

Source: Weekly rail system performance indicators, by commodities. Published by Statistics Canada.

Definition: Train speed is the average speed. It is calculated by dividing train-kilometres by the total hours that the train was running for a direct movement without stops between terminals. 'All trains' is the system-wide average train speed for all train types.

Importance: This number gives an indication of how quickly trains and cargo are moving on the Canadian railway network.

Source: Weekly rail system performance indicators, by commodities. Published by Statistics Canada.

Definition: Train speed is the average speed. It is calculated by dividing train-kilometres by the total hours that the train was running for a direct movement without stops between terminals. 'Intermodal' is the system-wide average train speed for intermodal trains specialized in carrying containers.

Importance: This number shows how quickly trains dedicated to intermodal traffic move on the Canadian railway network.

Source: Transport Canada, adapted from American Transportation Research Institute (ATRI) commercial trucking data.

Definition: The border wait time is calculated as the median of the time it takes trucks to travel through a defined region for each border crossing for all observations in the month.

Importance: This number shows how quickly commercial trucks move goods across the border.

Source: Transport Canada, adapted from HERE observations of speeds in select cities.

Definition: The measure of traffic congestion compares the speeds observed by HERE relative to the (free flow speed or speed limit).  Calculations are done to weight the various sections of road together along with readings made at various times of day so that a single number is calculated for each urban area. A higher number and growth of the number indicates traffic congestion is getting worse.

Importance: This number shows a very broad indicator of traffic congestion for the urban area and how much slower travel over the major highway network is compared to (free flow or speed limit).  It is best to compare values of the same urban area over time rather than values between urban areas as there may be different factors influencing the calculations for different cities.

Source: Transport Canada, Port of Halifax.

Definition: The commodity flow indicator is the amount of container twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) handled by a port in the current period compared to the average amount of TEUs handled in last three years.

Importance: This number shows the level of activity and growth at the port. It can also signal if there is the potential for bottlenecks that could slow down how quickly containers are moved in and out of the port.

Source: Transport Canada, Port of Montréal.

Definition: The commodity flow indicator is the amount of container twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) handled by a port in the current period compared to the average amount of TEUs handled in the last three years.

Importance: This number shows the level of activity and growth at the port. It can also signal if there is the potential for bottlenecks that could slow down how quickly containers are moved in and out of the port.

Source: Transport Canada, Port of Montréal, Port of Halifax.

Definition: The port dwell time is the time a container coming into the port spends from the time it is unloaded from the ship until it is loaded onto a train or truck at the port.

Importance: Shows the efficiency of the exchange of containers coming into the port between modes of transport at Canadian East coast ports.

Source: Transport Canada, Port of Vancouver.

Definition: The commodity flow indicator is the amount of container twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) handled by a port in the current period compared to the average amount of TEUs handled in the last three years.

Importance: This number shows the level of activity and growth at the port. It can also signal if there is the potential for bottlenecks that could slow down how quickly containers are moved in and out of the port.

Source: Transport Canada, Port of Prince Rupert.

Definition: The commodity flow indicator is the amount of container twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) handled by a port in the current period compared to the average amount of TEUs handled in the last three years.

Importance: This number shows the level of activity and growth at the port. It can also signal if there is the potential for bottlenecks that could slow down how quickly containers are moved in and out of the port.

Source: Transport Canada, Port of Vancouver, Port of Prince Rupert.

Definition: The port dwell time is the time a container coming into the port spends from the time it is unloaded from the ship until it is loaded onto a train or truck at the port.

Importance: Shows the efficiency of the exchange of containers coming into the port between modes of transport at Canadian West coast ports.

Source: Transport Canada, Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific (CP), Port of Vancouver, Port of Prince Rupert.

Definition: The end-to-end transit time is total time taken for containers being shipped into Canadian ports by rail and by water modes to reach their destination. It also includes the dwell time at the port where the container is unloaded.

Importance: The number shows how quickly shipping containers coming into Canadian West Coast ports travel to the major urban centre of Toronto.

Source: Transport Canada, Port of Vancouver.

Definition: The commodity flow indicator is the volume of grain handled by a port in the current period compared to the average volume handled in the last three years.

Importance: This number shows the level of activity and growth at the port. It can also signal if there is the potential for bottlenecks that could slow down how quickly grains are moved in and out of the port.

Source: Transport Canada, Port of Prince Rupert.

Definition: The commodity flow indicator is the volume of grain handled by a port in the current period compared to the average volume handled in the last three years.

Importance: This number shows the level of activity and growth at the port. It can also signal if there is the potential for bottlenecks that could slow down how quickly grains are moved in and out of the port.

Source: Transport Canada, Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific (CP), Port of Vancouver.

Definition: The end-to-end transit time is the total time to export grain being shipped from the Canadian Prairies to Asia from the Port of Vancouver. The time is made up of time spent loading grain at Prairie elevators, rail transit time, port dwell time, vessel loading time and marine transit time.

Importance: Shows how quickly Canadian grain for export can move through the supply chain to the destination country of Japan.

Source: Transport Canada, Canadian National Railway (CN), Canadian Pacific (CP), Port of Vancouver.

Definition: The end-to-end transit time is the total time to export grain being shipped from the Canadian Prairies to Asia from the Port of Vancouver. The time is made up of time spent loading grain at Prairie elevators, rail transit time, port dwell time, vessel loading time and marine transit time.

Importance: Shows how quickly Canadian grain for export can move through the supply chain to the destination country of China.