Results published by the Canadian General Freight Index indicate that the cost of ground transportation for Canadian shippers dropped for the third consecutive month in December, while fuel surcharges assessed by carriers continued to rise. The CGFI Total Freight Cost Index decreased by 1.6 percent in December compared to November, while the Base Rate Index, which excludes the impact of fuel surcharges assessed by carriers, decreased 2.5 percent.
The CGFI is still 2.9 percent above the April low point and 1.5 percent above last year’s result for the same period. Notably, average fuel surcharges increased substantially for the third consecutive month from their September low of 13.0 percent to 15.7 percent in December.
“In December, we continued to see the cooling off of the domestic truckload sector,” says Doug Payne, president and chief operating officer of Nulogx, which oversees the CGFI. “However, this was offset somewhat by a sustained increase in fuel surcharges and a surprisingly strong domestic LTL result.”
According to Alan Saipe, president of Supply Chain Surveys, “While the price increases seen in the domestic truckload sector earlier in the year did not take, we are expecting that carriers will try again for rate increases in early 2011.”
