NAICS 48839Industry · 5-digitregional market

Other support activities for water transportation

This industry comprises establishments, not classified to any other industry, primarily engaged in providing water transportation services. Establishments engaged in ship repair and maintenance (not done in a shipyard) and lighter operations are included. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 218
Under 10 employeesA: 69%
Establishments · USA: 752
Employment · USA: 7,284
Payroll · USA: $568M

Size and shape

How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.

Canadian establishments by number of employeesA

1–410649%

5–94521%

10–193114%

20–49188%

50–99126%

100–19952%

200–4990—

500+10%

Of 218 Canadian establishments with employees, 69% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

British Columbia6429%

Quebec4922%

Ontario4420%

Nova Scotia199%

Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Transportation and Warehousing, US · opened 2020

84.1%

1 year

67.4%

3 years

52.7%

5 years

36.1%

10 years

opened 2015

Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.

How businesses here compete

The structural profile of subsector 488, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.

regional competitionmedium capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 488 Support activities for transportation

A varied set of intermediaries. Brokerage is asset-light and contested by software; towing, marine services and airport handling are local and licence-bound.

Who sets the price: Carriers and shippers; brokers earn a spread.
The software it runs on: Freight brokerage and visibility platforms, port and airport systems, towing dispatch.

Market screens and studies

Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.

Screened one level up. Nothing is filed at this exact code; the screen for 4883 Support activities for water transportation covers it.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 4883

Marina Services & Boatyard OperationOne thing must be true

binding constraint: entry cost

A marina is waterfront real estate with a service counter attached, and the real estate is now institutionally priced. Sun Communities sold Safe Harbor — the largest marina and superyacht servicing business in the United States — to Blackstone Infrastructure for $5.65B, closing 123 of the 138 properties in April 2025 for $5.25B of cash consideration [A]. Across roughly 48,790 wet slips and dry storage spaces that is about $115,800 per slip, which is the number a would-be owner is bidding against. Infrastructure capital has repriced the asset, and it is not competing on service quality. The reachable version of this code is therefore not the marina but the services around it — rigging, haul-out, winter storage, brokerage and mobile repair — which need a yard lease rather than a harbour, and which the record at 441220 already touches from the retail side. That version was not screened here and is the one worth a second look.

NAICS 48833 vendors named10 sourced figuresOpen →

Software serving this industry

The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.

No vertical software market has been recorded along this branch. What the subsector typically runs on: Freight brokerage and visibility platforms, port and airport systems, towing dispatch.

And what every business buys · 25 generic categories

Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.

Who works here

The occupations employed in Transportation and warehousing, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Mail and message distribution occupations One industry 90.8%

Train crew operating occupations One industry 90.7%

Transportation officers and controllers One industry 75.7%

Transport truck and transit drivers Mostly one sector 65.4%

Managers in transportation and postal and courier services Mostly one sector 63.9%

Taxi, personal service and delivery service drivers Mostly one sector 57.7%

Contractors and supervisors, technical maintenance trades and heavy equipment and transport operators Mostly one sector 22.6%

Water and rail transport operators and labourers and related occupations Mostly one sector 11.4%

Automotive service technicians Mostly one sector 9.1%

Crane operators and water well drillers Mostly one sector 6.6%

These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.

And the jobs every business has

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 13.9%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 5.8%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 5.1%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 5%

Technical inspectors and regulatory officers Across the economy 3.9%

Technical occupations in electronics and electrical engineering Across the economy 3.7%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 3.3%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 3.1%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 2.7%

Shoe repairers, shoemakers and upholsterers Across the economy 2.7%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. In a small establishment several of these are usually one person, or an outside provider.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 48839. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
488390	Other support activities for water transportation	218	screened at 4883

Alongside it, under 4883 Support activities for water transportation

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
48831	Port and harbour operations	263	screened at 4883
48832	Marine cargo handling	119	screened at 4883
48833	Navigational services to shipping	135	screened at 4883