Chart of the Week

Underlying shifts in domestic shipping are showing up in the spot market.

The jury is still out on whether truckload demand has hit the floor.

Companies are still trying to get their margins back to pre-pandemic levels with price increases on finished goods. This will continue to put freight demand at risk in the second half of the year.

Flatbed capacity tends to be as erratic as its demand, making it harder to secure in general.

After over a year of declining volumes and rates, trucking spot rates have leveled and demand has just witnessed an unseasonable jump.

The pandemic may have exposed long-term weakness to the railroads’ intermodal growth plans.

Southern California markets were flush with transportation activity during the pandemic. That has eroded and then some. This has not only left transportation networks exposed operationally but also created pricing gaps.

What do historically low rejection rates mean for the truckload industry?

Upstream and historic values are predicting another strong deterioration in truckload spot rates in April. How seriously should we take this?

Perhaps the biggest question of 2023 for domestic trucking is when will the surplus of capacity fade to a point that prices stop falling. One data point provides deeper insight than simply a count of drivers or tractors.

Lunar New Year normally brings a slow shipping period for imports, but the lead-in period was also lackluster. With many companies calling for a return to seasonal patterns later in the year, just how close are we to that being a reality?

Many people get hung up on trying to figure out how much capacity is readily available in trucking when they should be more focused on monitoring demand trends.

Are supply chains already manifesting significant changes in domestic transportation patterns?

Inventory growth in December is not a great sign for carriers who are expecting the market to bottom this winter.

What conclusions can we draw from the relationship between imports and trucking?

Truckload carriers nearly auto-accepted load requests during the holidays. While this may look like a blessing to shippers, the implications are not great.

Truckload carriers are providing the best contract compliance since COVID started during a traditionally chaotic time. What does this mean for 2023?

Normally one of the softest regions for truckload activity in the U.S., the Pacific Northwest has become the tightest in the nation.

Fuel costs are a huge cost component of operating a trucking business. Small operators are at a significant disadvantage in the current market thanks not only to declining demand but fuel price volatility.

Transportation demand continues to erode heading into the slowest months of the year. Could this be the bottom?