The Canadian General Freight Index for the first six months of 2010 indicates that the cost of ground transportation for Canadian shippers increased slightly. “While rates continued to trend downward in the first quarter of 2010, we have seen two successive months of increases, which may indicate that we reached bottom in April, although it is still too early to know for sure,” says Dr. Alan Saipe, president of Supply Chain Surveys Inc.
Overall freight costs increased 1.8 percent from December 2009 to June 2010. Base rates, which exclude the impact of fuel surcharges assessed by carriers, increased by 2.2 percent. Average fuel surcharges decreased marginally from 14.7 percent of base rates to 13.4 percent, which buffered the effect of the increasing base rates. In addition, overall freight costs for June trended upward, increasing 1.9 percent when compared to May and 3.2 percent compared to April.
“Most of the increases are in the domestic truckload sector,” says Doug Payne, president of Nulogx. “If fleet operators have eliminated their excess capacity, they may now be looking to secure price increases in this more volatile market segment.”
