TORONTO, Ont. – Loadlink’s Canadian spot market is off to a strong start, with freight volumes up 13% from December, according to the load board operator TransCore Link Logistics.

Loadlink volume has now risen for four consecutive months, the company said Tuesday.

“Average daily load postings rose 2% and year-over-year, total load volumes were down only 3% compared to January 2019,” it said.

Since 2016, January load volumes have consistently outperformed December volumes.

TransCore attributed the improved January performance to a 65% rise in cross-border loads entering Canada.

“A 25% drop in outbound cross-border loads originating from Canada slightly countered this gain. Intra-Canadian load volumes declined month-over-month at a small rate of just 3%,” TransCore said.

January equipment numbers rose 8% while the average daily number of truck postings fell 1% month-over-month. Compared to January 2019, capacity was up 2% year-over-year.

Also in January, capacity contracted 4% to a truck-to-load ratio of 2.68 from 2.78 in December. Year-over-year, January’s truck-to-load ratio rose 5% compared to 2.54% in January 2019.