TransCore Link Logistics Canadian Freight Index starts 2015 by continuing last year’s trend of high load volumes. Though month-over-month and year-over-year load volumes decreased 1% and 18%, respectively, January set the second-highest recorded volumes compared to the same month in any year.
Noticeable shifts in cross-border load volumes coming into Canada were observed in Ontario and in Western regions. Compared to December 2014 loads coming into Ontario increased 7%, and loads coming into Western Canada decreased significantly by 24%.
Cross-border load volumes averaged 73% of the total, an increase of 3% compared to December 2014. Year-over-year, cross-border loads leaving and entering Canada to and from the United States decreased 8% and 20%, respectively.
Intra-Canada load volumes represented 23% of the total volumes for January and decreased 19% year-over-year.
Equipment postings were up 7% month-over-month and 8% year-over-year. The equipment-to-load ratio increased to 1.79 from 1.66 in December, and from 1.36 in January 2014.
TransCore’s Canadian Freight Index accurately measures trends from roughly 5,000 of Canada’s trucking companies and freight brokers, and includes all domestic, cross-border, and interstate data submitted by Loadlink’s Canadian-based customers.