Capacity is almost as tight as it was during the panic buying inspired March. Could it get tighter?
“The most critical commodity we trade in with drivers today is hours,” said Norm Thomas of Powerfleet.
A lot of the recent struggles for carriers originated in what many consider to be the most profitable year.
Long-haul truckers practice social distancing by staying in their sleeper berths, uncertain where their next load will come from as manufacturers and retailers shut down.
Tender rejections are often a leading indicator of spot rates and thus contract rates at a lag.
Freight brokers expect spot rates to ramp this week, but the long-term outlook is uncertain.
“Strawberries are a crop that doesn’t like heat.” Temperatures cracking 90 degrees have pretty much ended Florida’s strawberry growing season.
The coronavirus has made its first impact upon the American economy – the stock market. The novel virus is also impacting import volumes from China and the effect will quickly trickle into the trucking market. It has not yet, but will soon. This week, spot rates bounced back slightly with a bump in outbound volumes. Capacity remains very loose.
More than a foot of weekend snow could hit volatile markets with elevated rejection levels.
This week, the shippers gain pricing power for the 5th time in the first seven weeks of 2020. Volumes are flat, rejection rates are low and rates are even lower.
Rejections, lead times down in southern markets despite snowfall forecast.
In a monotonous week in the freight industry, we believe neither the shippers nor carriers gained any pricing power.
Shippers gain another 5 points of pricing power in this week’s DHL Supply Chain Pricing Power Index.
Tender rejections: Looking into the week, we expect the capacity to continue to loosen as volumes remain at midwinter levels. Occasional surges in demand are not unheard of in February, but they are unlikely to have much impact on capacity. Carriers who operate in California and around the ports need to start thinking about the […]
The ramifications of 2019 will come in the form of shrinking capacity, pushing rates up as supply falls to meet demand instead of dwarfing it.
Diesel fuel price outlook The rack-to-retail spread has widened to more than $1.10/gallon, creating an unearned windfall for trucking carriers. Diesel markets have been sliding in part on an overall decline in oil since the start of the year, but retail is slow to follow. Diesel itself has fallen farther than crude, primarily on fears […]
Despite strong economic data in favor of the carriers, flat volumes and loosening capacity garners a power grab by the shippers.
Outbound volumes and rejections were horizontal this week. Target’s poor earnings are not enough for us to believe the retail sector is in danger of a slowdown, but it is slightly alarming.
