In the last week, the truck rates remained firm with a continued shortage of vehicles and an improvement in cargo movement. "The freight rates are likely to remain tight till March end, " said a transporter.

In the last week, the rates from Mumbai to rest of the country remained steady except to south to which the rates increased marginally by Rs 200-300. While rates to Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh remained same. Truck rates to Delhi were at Rs 15,000, marking a high of Rs 2000 over March first week. As the rates to Delhi remained same, the freight rates to Haryana and Punjab remained the same.

The improvement in the cargo movement due to usual rush during March end continued to have its impact on the movement to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The freight rates to Patna and Muzaffarpur were static at Rs 23,000. The rates to Lucknow remainedtoo static Rs 16,000 while rates to Agra increased by Rs 1,00 to Rs 13,800.

In the western region, rates also remained more or less same except for Maharashtra, which witnessed a marginal hike of Rs 100-200. Pune rates meanwhile went up Rs 100 to Rs 3,600 while rates to Nagpur increased by Rs 200 to Rs 5,700. Rates to Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh remained the same.

The rates to eastern states showed some improvement during the last week. Truck rates to Guwahati were Rs 300 higher at Rs 37,000 although a few operators continued to book the Guwahati vehicles even at Rs 38,000-40,000.

The highest increase in rates in the estern region was to Calcutta where increased by Rs 1,500 to Rs 24,500. Rates to south went up by Rs 100 to Rs 200. The rates to Vizag went up to Rs 13,000, a hike of Rs 200. Tamil Nadu and Kerala cities saw marginal rise in the rates last week.