Counter-tariffs won't just affect the cost of goods for Canadians. They'll hit the trailers moving them too
Canadians bracing for billions of dollars in counter-tariffs won't just see prices rise on American items like produce, toilet paper and furniture, but on the very semi-trailers used to haul those goods.
Semi-trailers, largely built in U.S., expected to see 25% counter-tariff take effect Sept. 8
Bryce Hoye · CBC News
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Canadians bracing for billions of dollars in counter-tariffs won't just see prices rise on American aluminum, toilet paper, furniture and more — but on the very semi-trailers hauling those goods into and around the country.
Ocean Trailer, the largest retailer of semi-trailers in Western Canada, is waiting on a $45-million order of 600 trailers from U.S. manufacturers.
The company is rushing to get as many over the border before a 25 per cent Canadian counter-tariff on trailers, and scores of other items, takes effect on Tuesday.
"The extra cost, the 25 per cent, is well above our profit margin on a trailer, so we would have no choice but to pass that along to the customer," said Mack Keay, Ocean Trailer's chief operating officer, told CBC News from Vancouver.
The federal government announced dollar-for-dollar countermeasures will take effect at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday on $27.6 billion worth of U.S. goods, in response to the latest round of tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump's administration.
Keay said it's possible Ocean Trailer may be able to cancel some of its order, which was expected to flow in trailer by trailer until the end of the year, but it's on the hook for the trailers that are already in the process of being fabricated in the U.S.
The ones the company can't get into Canada by Sept. 8 will have to be parked somewhere in the U.S. or sold to American-based retailers, and Keay said he wouldn't get back what he paid for them.
Industry 'very much concerned'
Ocean Trailer isn't alone.
The head of the Manitoba Trucking Association said the vast majority of semi-trailers in Canada come from the U.S.
"I know a number of members that currently have trailers on order and are very much concerned about the cost of those trailers, because they ordered them before the counter-tariffs," said executive director Aaron Dolyniuk.
"I don't know that they'll be able to afford to pay 25 per cent more for them when they get here."
Dolyniuk said many businesses that rely on those trucking companies to ship product are also "rushing to get things north of the border before the [counter-]tariffs come on."
"I was talking to one member late last week … [who] said normally, they hauled two loads for this one customer northbound, and they wanted 15 this week," he said.
A variety of types of semi-trailers are towed along Canadian roadways, but the two most common are called dry vans and refrigerated vans.
The latter, also known as "reefer" vans, haul groceries, pharmaceuticals and other items that need temperature-controlled conditions during transport to avoid spoilage.
Dry van trailers are used to haul everything from kitchen appliances to car and machine parts, paper products, furniture, televisions, canned goods and other non-perishable items.
'This is not going to be OK'
There are just two semi-trailer manufacturers in Canada — one based in Ontario that doesn't manufacture reefer van trailers and another in Quebec which does, along with making dry vans, flat fright vans and other specialty trailer types.
Neither would have the capacity overnight to absorb the increased demand for trailer orders or rentals from Canadian trucking companies following counter-tariffs.
Ocean Trailer's Keay said Canada's domestic manufacturing capabilities are less than half of what the trucking industry would need to meet demand.
At the industry level, the potential added costs from counter-tariffs are eye-watering.
The average cost across trailer varieties is about $75,000, said Keay. A 25 per cent tariff would drive that closer to $95,000.
Each of the seven Ocean Trailer branches from Manitoba to B.C. is bringing in one or two trailers per day, either associated with orders from trucking companies or to be added to the company's rental fleet, said Dallas Senebald, the branch manager for the Winnipeg office.
"This is not going to be OK. Not just us not being OK, the industry is not going to be OK," said Senebald, whose Winnipeg office employs 40 people.
"There will be a shortage of trailers, which then increases demand, increases the cost of the trailers, and that gets filtered down right to consumer goods that are needed to be shipped."
If this lasts many weeks ... there could be companies going bankrupt.- Aaron Dolyniuk, Manitoba Trucking Association
Senebald said trends in semi-trailer sales can be unpredictable year to year, depending on supply and demand of goods that need shipping.
One year, a larger corporate customer might order 100 trailers for purchase, and then none the next year, said Senebald. The Winnipeg branch might bringing in 300 to 400 trailers one year, and 80 the next, he said.
The variability is one reason the industry relies on a mixed model. Ocean Trailer has about eight suppliers — seven in the U.S. and one in Mexico, said Senebald.
On top of being the largest retailer of semi-trailers west of Ontario, it's also the largest business for rentals.
In the short term, Canadian trucking companies may turn to rentals as they hold off on buying U.S. trailers that cost them 25 per cent more due to counter-tariffs, said Senebald — and that's a concern.
"Demand for rentals is going to skyrocket so much so that we probably won't have enough to fulfil customer needs," he said.
"Saying no to customers repeatedly is never a good thing. Eventually, they stop calling."
The trucking association's Dolyniuk said the depth of pain felt will ultimately depend on how long the tariff war goes on.
"If this lasts many weeks ... there could be companies going bankrupt within the trucking sector and outside of it," he said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bryce Hoye is a multi-platform journalist with a background in wildlife biology. He has worked for CBC Manitoba for over a decade with stints producing at CBC's Quirks & Quarks and Front Burner. He was a 2024-25 Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT. He is also Prairie rep for outCBC. He has won a national Radio Television Digital News Association award for a 2017 feature on the history of the fur trade, and a 2023 Prairie region award for an audio documentary about a Chinese-Canadian father passing down his love for hockey to the next generation of Asian Canadians.
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