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 6 months of 2010.

Overall Freight Costs increased by 1.8% from December 2009 to June 2010. 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.

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According to Dr. Alan Saipe, President, Supply Chain Surveys Inc.”"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”.

“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.”