Ground shipping rates continue steady rise

TORONTO — The trend of increasing ground transportation rates continued through the July 2010 period.

Overall Freight Costs increased by 3 percent in July when compared to June, according to the Canadian General Freight Index.

Base Rates, which exclude the impact of fuel surcharges assessed by carriers, also increased by 3.2 percent while average fuel surcharges decreased slightly 13.4 percent of base rates to 13 percent during the same period.

"The information provided by the CGFI continues to indicate that we reached a floor in transportation costs for Canadian Shippers in April of this year,” says Doug Payne, president of Nulogx.

“Since then we have seen three consecutive months of increases, led primarily by activity in both the Domestic and Transborder Truckload sectors."

He said with the potential for higher transportation prices ahead, shippers will be looking for innovative ways to manage costs and increase supply chain efficiency.