TORONTO, Ont. -- Spot market freight shipments both within Canada and cross-border remained steady in August with an increase of 1% from July, according to the latest results from TransCore’s Canadian Freight Index. However, year-over-year load volumes were down 13%.
Cross-border volume accounted for 71% of overall loads while intra-Canada freight made up 25% of the total load volumes.
Equipment availability increased 3% month-over-month and 13% year-over-year. Available capacity has continued to increase from the beginning of the year with August volumes sitting at the highest levels year-to-date. August equipment volumes were down only 3% from the peak posting levels of August 2007.
“While an increase was seen in both equipment and load postings, the equipment to loads ratio for August widened to the largest variance in 2012, depicting a larger increase in available capacity,” TransCore officials said in a release.
Top destinations for loads imported into Canada were: Ontario (54%), Western (25%), Quebec (20%), and Atlantic (1%).
Top regions for import equipment into Canada were: Ontario (52%), Western (24%), Quebec (21%), and Atlantic (3%).
Top regions of origins of loads within Canada were: Western (43%), Ontario (27%), Quebec (22%), and Atlantic (8%).
The top states of origin for loads destined to Canada in order of most loads were Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California and Indiana. Texas dropped off from the top five – into ninth place – for the first time in months.
The top destinations for freight originating in Canada were New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, California and Florida.