California fires lead to growing tender rejections, increasing volumes

by FreightWaves’ Lincoln Duff

Hello and welcome to another edition of Lincoln’s Logs, where I point out some of my favorite datasets in SONAR that can empower you to make actionable decisions to help keep your trucks rolling and increase revenues. 

Today I’m back in Chattanooga after another week on the road. Last week I was in Vancouver, Washington for the TPP TCO-3 Meeting at Gulick Trucking. That was followed by TPP customer visits in California. It’s always great to be on site with customers and learn how they operate their business.

As those California fires have intensified, they’ve started to have a real effect on the freight markets. What I’ve built in SONAR is a specific page to monitor the California markets and the volatility occuring due to the fires. Right now, we’re seeing large increases in Outbound Tender Rejects (OTRI) across the state, which makes sense as carriers don’t want to deal with the fire and therefore turn down contracted loads. We’re also seeing an increase in volumes out of most CA markets as shippers are trying to get their loads out before they are affected. Besides the market table, I’ve also added a social media tracker that is following tweets related to the wildfires, to be sure to stay on top of the latest news. Finally, on the right side of the page is the critical events map tracking the fires, power outages, and winds and assessing the risk of each area. The SONAR link below will build this exact page in your dashboard. 

IMAGE: FREIGHTWAVES’ SONAR

If you are running freight in California, be sure to stay safe, as the fires are growing in size and moving rapidly. Our resident Meteorologist here at FreightWaves, Nick Austin does have up to the minute coverage so be sure to check in daily for our weather coverage as well. 

Hammer down!