SONAR Sightings: Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, gains market share; flatbed rejections nose-dive

The neighboring market of Allentown, Pennsylvania, on the other hand, has seen a significant decrease in outbound volumes. These two markets usually move in sync with one another, but since Monday the Outbound Tender Volume Index for Allentown is down 5.5%, bringing market share down with it from 2.7% to 2.4%.

Outbound tender rejections in Allentown spiked in response to the decrease in tender volumes, surging nearly 130 bps to 8.2%. The rise in rejection rates signifies that carriers are rejecting their contracted freight and searching the spot market to book loads.

Savannah, Georgia

In the Southeast, imports to the Port of Savannah, Georgia, remain at record highs, expecting to move more than 6 million TEUs this fiscal year. 

The boom in imports to the southeastern port has caused the Outbound Tender Volume Index for Savannah to see exponential growth, rising 25.5% this week to a six-month high of 125.6. 

Despite the major increase in volume, capacity remains consistent. The Outbound Tender Reject Index for Savannah is up 45 bps this week to 4%, indicating that carriers are, for the most part, sticking with their contract tendered freight.

NTI as a point of reference

The National Truckload Index is a daily look at how spot rates in specific lanes hold up in comparison to the national average, giving carriers and brokers an idea of which lanes to gravitate toward or avoid.

Flatbed tender rejections

Truckload volumes and rejections give a good indication of the retail sector — typical consumer goods such as televisions — but the flatbed market provides insight to the industrial economy.

Construction shipments for housing and big-ticket manufacturing like airplane parts are moved by flatbed. The retail and household consumer goods demand was felt almost immediately at the start of the pandemic, but it took some time for the larger items to make their way through the industry.

It wasn’t until the beginning of 2022 that the flatbed market peaked, then as the industrial side of the economy slowed, rejection rates took a dive. The chart below shows that almost as soon as flatbed rejections began to decline, total housing stats started going down right along with them.

Flatbed rejection rates reached nearly 45% at the start of March but are now down to 14.7%.

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