TORONTO — The TransCore North American Freight Index hit its sixth straight month of year-over-year gains and broke the 1000 mark for the first time since June 2008.

The truckload spot market freight volume reached pre-recession levels in March, climbing 259 percent from a year ago and 14 percent from March 2008, according to TransCore¹s North American Freight Index.

The index is based on millions of spot truckloads and available trucks fed into TransCore’s DAT Network — a load board for shippers and carriers in the U.S. and Canada.

March’s spot freight also exceeded February’s volume by 44 percent. A month-over-month increase is typical in this season, and this month approached the five-year average increase of 46.6 percent between the two corresponding months of 2005 through 2009.

The strength of the spot market measured by TransCore’s index is underscored by quarterly results, as well. Total spot freight volume more than tripled in the first quarter of 2010 over the same period in 2009 and was 11 percent higher than in 2008.

The spot market results for the 2010 quarter exceeded first quarter results for every year since 2004, when volume was 4.5 percent higher.