OTTAWA, Ont. — Results published today by the Canadian General Freight Index (CGFI) indicate that the cost of ground transportation for Canadian shippers increased slightly during the first six months of 2010.

Overall freight costs increased by 1.8% from December to June. Base rates, which exclude the impact of fuel surcharges assessed by carriers, also increased by 2.2%. Average fuel surcharges decreased marginally from 14.7% of base rates to 13.4%, which buffered the effect of the increasing base rates.
 
In addition, overall freight costs for June trended upward, increasing 1.9% when compared to May and 3.2% compared to April.
 
“While rates continued to trend downward in the first quarter of 2010, we have seen two successive months of increases, which may indicate that we reached bottom in April although it is still too early to know for sure,” said Dr. Alan Saipe, president of Supply Chain Surveys. 
 
“Most of the increases are in the domestic truckload sector,” says Doug Payne, president of Nulogx. “If fleet operators have eliminated their excess capacity they may now be looking to secure price increases in this more volatile market segment.”