spot rates

DAT reported flat to lower rates in this weeks national averages. The TRI has been suggesting a softening market for the past few weeks. 

The spot market is normalizing; XPO’s Brad Jacobs talks jazz and M&A; China COSCO’s purchase of OOCL might be held up; railroad Teamsters want NAFTA changes; weak spot rates for container ships pulling down contract negotiations; Xi looks for a way out of the trade war.

There’s a quiet spot market nationally, but we’re seeing significant upward movement for reefers coming out of California’s agricultural regions.

Trucking contract rate increases tamp down volatility; Nikola Motor Company returns deposits on truck orders; Hunter Harrison was one of the highest paid CEOs in 2017; Xi Jinping takes the stage to defend Chinese trade practices; container lines enter bid season with a weak hand.

Freight market activity is stabilizing as carriers move into new contract cycles. The ELD hard enforcement period appears to be a non-factor so far. 

Turndowns inbound and outbound of Charleston are gradually rising in tandem, indicating a healthy market. Spot rate movements will depend on where capacity is positioned once port traffic ramps up.

The number of oil rigs and the demand for flatbed trucking are rising in tandem, as WTI prices go up and the Brent-WTI spread widens.

What happens with increased turndowns in this context is that carriers don’t want to go inbound into a place—in this case, Philadelphia—as they assess the cost of outbound.

General Mills is citing higher freight costs as a reason for lower than expected earning. This is not an uncommon issue in today’s marketplace. There could be solutions coming in the future. 

Container traffic into the Port of Seattle is down 22.6% YTD, starving the city of freight. Trucking spot rates have cratered, and turndowns have dropped 75% since their peak in October as carriers are forced to accept lower prices.

Shippers move more freight into the contract market to avoid higher spot market rates

For months, West Coast spot rates have been softening, allowing brokers to take big margins and shippers to move freight inexpensively, with short lead times. That’s about to change.

At least for one week, seasonality has impacted rates, according to the latest data from DAT Solutions. Spot rates for dry vans and flatbeds fell for the week ending Jan. 20.

Outbound rates from the Great Lakes have held steady at the high prices reached during last September’s nationwide spike, but over the past 7 days, they’re trending upward again.

For fleets that spend time operating on load boards, the high spot rates are a blessing. For shippers, though, it’s been a challenging time as they have been forced to adjust to a new era in trucking.

Mudslides and a dead Pacific Northwest are contributing to high northbound rates coming out of Los Angeles, while extreme winter weather in the Northeast and freight backbuilds are keeping Chicago hot.

Uberization has been a hot term to describe digital transactional brokerage. But a bigger, untapped opportunity might be available in the market 

A holiday week did little to slow the rising tide of rates as 2017 came to a close. According to DAT Solutions, national spot rates for van and refrigerated loads reached their highest point of the year.

An unstable Polar Vortex first warmed the Great Lakes and then brought Siberian temperatures to the region, creating disruptive snowfalls and historically low end-of-year temperatures. These weather events only add to numerous factors keeping spot rates sky-high.

Uber Freight has added two new features to its app that it believes will help truckers find loads quicker and reduce empty miles.

ELD fine enforcement hit during peak holiday retail season. Watch out for April’s ‘hard enforcement’ period, which will coincide with increased agricultural and construction demand.

Dry van spot rates hit a 3-year monthly high in November, according to data compiled by DAT Solutions. The November rate was $2.07 per mile, the highest monthly average since December 2014, the firm said, and 5 cents above October levels.

The out-of-control wildfires burning in California have had a dramatic impact on spot rates in the region.

Total accepted loads from LA to Seattle have dropped 60% in a week; spot rates in and out of Los Angeles are up by as much as 35% in seven days.

Following a Thanksgiving week that saw loads depressed, but not rates, the spot freight market was going full steam ahead last week with loads climbing 64% on the DAT network of load boards.

The spot market, which has been trending up for much of this year and is near record highs, is showing no signs of slowing down, according to DAT.

For the first time since DAT began reporting its data in the current format, the monthly spot rate has exceeded the contract rate at the same time in all three modes.  And the latest DAT Trucking Freight Barometers are continuing to signal that the ‘fall surge’ is happening for the first time since 2007.  Now is a good time to have secured capacity and a bad time to be locked into contract rates.

Spot rates continue to climb and capacity continues to shrink, and now experts are predicting a strong holiday retail season. Could the good news for carriers get any better?

Continued tightening of capacity is driving up FTR’s Trucking Conditions Index (TCI). The TCI for July posted a positive reading of 5.75, reflecting tightening capacity, rising spot rates and a further impact this fall and winter from the implementation of electronic logging devices, FTR said.

An already robust spot truckload freight market is now reacting to the effects of Hurricane Harvey, and with Irma on the horizon and wild fires burning out west, is now showing few signs of slowing down.

The National Hurricane Center has seen rapid intensification of Hurricane Harvey today and is now expecting the storm to gather strength before it makes landfall in Texas late Friday/early Saturday morning. The trucking interests are watching the storm closely as its final path and impacts will influence area spot rates, capacity, and fuel costs.

While still strong, conditions may be moderating for the trucking industry as key indicators are slowly retreating from recent highs.

A new month, but the same old story. Spot rates rose again according to data from DAT, with the national van and flatbed rates each climbing 3 cents per mile and refrigerated rates rising 4 cents for the week of July 30 to Aug. 5.

A surprise national brake safety inspection day on May 3 netted nearly 12% of commercial vehicles inspected with brake violations, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance announced this week.