Loads surge, capacity tightens on Canadian spot market

by Today's Trucking

The Canadian spot market reached all-time high load volumes for November, according to the latest data from Loadlink Technologies.

Volumes accelerated through the month, Loadlink reports, bucking historic trends that tend to see load volumes slow near the end of the calendar year.

Chart showing spot market activity

Loads were up 69% year over year, and up 32% from October.

“These past few months have shown a clear sign that even through all of the uncertainty that the pandemic continues to cast, along with the bottlenecks within the supply chain, the spike in demand remains strong,” says Claudia Milicevic, president of Loadlink Technologies.

Both domestic and cross-border freight demand increased in November. Loads to the U.S. were up 28% compared to October, and up 113% year over year. This, while equipment postings fell 9% putting pressure on capacity.

Inbound loads from the U.S. also surged 46%, both month over month and year over year.

Domestic loads grew 25% from October, and were up 66% year over year.

For the first time in years, Loadlink reports there were fewer than two trucks posted for each available load. The truck-to-load ratio was 1.79, down 25% from October. Loadlink says this is the tightest capacity seen in the Canadian spot market since June 2018. Capacity was 40% tighter from last November.

Infographic showing spot market activity


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  • Loads inside Canada are stay paying $1 cd or about 76 cents per mile less than U S cross border freight. So the freight rates inside Canada with the carbon tax are still too low to pay truck drivers almost $30/ hr on payroll plus overtime. In my opinion we still have lots of trucks for Canada only freight.

  • Just wait until new Ontario emission rules are in place and 30% of the trucks are taken off the road as we can’t get new trucks engine light on will not pass

  • January should make for an interesting month. With the new tax and vaccination rules taking effect. You can count on rates to climb even higher and capacity to get tighter.