Freight Futures daily curve: 12/18

Freight Futures lane to watch today: Philadelphia, PA to Chicago, IL (VPC)

A “jail break” in the East is the big story in Trucking Freight Futures. The spot National contract (FUT.VNU201912) rose nearly $0.01 or 0.53% to $1.511/mile driven by a $0.021 or 1.4% jump in the East regional contract (FUT.VEU201912) to $1.562. As with Monday, both the West regional (FUT.VWU201912) and South regional (FUT.VSU201912) contracts finished unchanged at $1.649 and $1.321, respectively.

The “jail break” in the East happened on the PHL to CHI (VPC) lane and was orchestrated by further conjecture of shifting trade flow patterns from the West Coast to the East Coast. The December PHL to CHI contract (FUT.VPC201912) shot up $0.064 or 6.6% to a near life-of- contract high of $1.039. The entire VPC lane futures forward curve (FWD.VPC) also shifted upward approximately $0.035 per month across the board. In addition, outbound tender rejections around Newark, NJ (OTRI.EWR) have risen dramatically in the past 10 days to 5.37%. The CHI to ATL (FUT.VCA201912) and ATL to PHI (FUT.VAP201912) contracts failed to get caught up in VPC’s exhaust and remained unchanged at $1.946 and $1.701, respectively. The individual lanes in both the West and South regions delivered offsetting results. The LAX to SEA contract (FUT.VLS201912) in the West rose 0.2% to $2.055 while SEA to LAX (FUT.VSL201912) fell 0.24% to $1.243. In the South, the LAX to DAL contract (FUT.VLD201912) gained 0.31% as DAL to LAX (FUT.VDL201912) slipped 0.4% to close at $1.012.

SONAR Tickers: FUT.VPC201912, OTRI.EWR