TORONTO, ON – New results published by the Canadian General Freight Index (CGFI) indicate the total cost of ground transportation for Canadian shippers increased slightly from one month to the other, but turned in its best performance when compared to 2014.

The CGFI gained a mere 0.12 percent in August when compared with July’s results and follow a 0.6% drop in July from the month before.  

However, when August is compared to the same month in 2014, the index is up 11.375 percent, its biggest year-over-year increase so far in 2015.

The measure includes all accessorial and fuel surcharges for all over-the road, general freight shipments, but excludes specialty freight services, rail, air, ocean and courier.

The Base Rate Index, which excludes accessorial charges assessed by carriers, increased 0.7 percent when compared to July and is up 17.8 percent compared to August 2014. The latter is also the biggest year-over-year increase of 2015.

Average fuel surcharges assessed by carriers decreased in August. Fuel was 14.39 percent of base rates in August versus 14.88 percent in July.

“Although fuel costs are dropping, we saw an increase in the base rates,” said Doug Payne, president and chief operating officer of Nulogx, a transportation management system provider that provides analysis of the report “Total domestic and cross-border truckload had small increases off-set by decreases in total domestic and cross border less-than-truckload.”