FORT ERIE, Ont. — Month-to-month commercial truck crossings rose slightly in October at most Ontario-U.S. bridges and borders, but are still down significantly from the same period in 2008.

According to the most recent numbers released by the Public Border Operators Association, there were 577,000 cross-border truck crosssings in October, compare to 565,000 the months before. But compared to 627,000 trips in October last year, total traffic is still down 8 percent.

Year to date, total truck crossings are down 20 percent from the first 10 months of 2008.

There were indications that truck-hauled trade first hit bottom in August, when the month-to-month downward spiral throughout 2009 seemed to have plateaued.

The Ambassador Bridge, the busiest Canadian-American border gateway in Windsor-Detroit, is down just over 8 percent from October 2008, but up by about 5,000 crossings from September of this year.

In fact, that pattern was fairly consistent with the numbers reported by most bridge operators, which mostly seem to hover in the minus six-to10 percent rage compared to October 2008, but are, on average, posting improved traffic numbers from past months in 2009.

The International Bridge, spanning the twin Sault Ste. Maries showed slightly higher (13.4 percent) truck losses from October 2008, however.

Year-to-date, though, all commercial crossings have decreased significantly from last year, which was already down by a large margin compared to 2007.

The Ambassador’s truck traffic is down 24 percent, while the Peace Bridge and Lewiston-Queenston Bridges is are down in the 15-percent range.