News Brief -- Spot Freight Up 9 Percent in September, Continuing Three Month Trend of Better-than-Seasonal Improvement

PORTLAND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spot market freight availability increased by 9 percent in September, compared to August, according to the TransCore Freight Index, a measure of truckload freight volume found on load boards supported by the DAT Network, including 3sixty Freight Match and TruckersEdge.net.

The 9 percent month-to-month uptick continues a three month trend of better-than-seasonal improvement. Likewise, load-to-truck ratios on the spot market have been trending upward since February.

Although the September 2009 spot freight volume was off by 14 percent compared to that of a year ago, it appears to be on track to exceed the fourth quarter of 2008 on a year-over-year basis.

Brokers, 3PLs, carriers, and owner-operators in North America list more than 50 million loads and trucks per year across a variety of services feeding TransCore’s DAT^® Network. As a result of this high volume, TransCore’s Freight Index is representative of the ups and downs in U.S. spot market freight availability.

The DAT Network sets the standard for load board services in North America by providing:

• The most loads and trucks found on any load board on the internet or in truck stops,
• The highest number of exclusive loads found on a single load board,
• The best quality brokers in the industry with the highest credit scores and lowest-days-to-pay.

TransCore’s Commercial Technology Group is a leading provider of transportation solutions in the United States and Canada serving brokers, carriers, owner-operators and shippers with best-in-class products. Load boards include Loadlink in Canada and 3sixty Freight Match powered by the DAT Network in the United States, which has set the industry standard for the spot freight marketplace since 1978. TransCore’s asset tracking and in-cab communications solutions feature the industry’s fastest response times and state-of-the-art satellite networking. TransCore provides fleet compliance, distribution and intermodal services, automated carrier safety and insurance monitoring, truckload rate indices for contract markets, and the most popular broker logistics software. TransCore is also the largest global manufacturer of transportation-based radio frequency identification (RFID) applications with 37 million RFID tags and 58,000 readers distributed in more than 40 countries throughout the world. TransCore RFID products support the toll, traffic management, rail, access control, trucking, homeland security, and parking markets.