TransCore’s Canadian Freight Index showed a 50% year-over-year increase in spot market freight volume with a two point increase from July. Freight for the month of August registered the highest volume ever recorded for the same month in the last five years. Combined cross-border loads were 55% higher year-over-year, while equipment availability dropped 16% as compared to August 2009. Increasing level of freight availability along with a decline in trucks searching for loads has been the steady pattern throughout the last eight months. August was also the fifth highest performing month in 2010.

TransCore’s Loadlink freight matching database constitutes the largest Canadian network of carriers, owner/operators, freight brokers and intermediaries and has been available to Canadian subscribers since its inception in 1990. Over 12 million full loads, LTL (less-than-truckload) shipments and trucks are posted to the Loadlink network annually. As a result of this high volume, TransCore believes its Canadian Freight Index is representative of the ups and downs in spot market freight movement and provides a historical account of the domestic and cross border spot market freight movement.

The first four columns in Table 1 include monthly index values for years 2006 through 2009. The last column indicates the percentage change from January through August 2009 to 2010. For the purpose of establishing a baseline for the index, January 2002 (index value of 100) has been used.