Reefer markets: Spot rates at YTD highs
Reefer capacity remains tight, volumes are strong and spot rates are very high. In fact, at $3.29/mile including fuel, national average reefer spot rates on Truckstop.com’s load boards have not yet retreated from their YTD high. Midwest to the East Coast lanes have the most momentum and may continue
Trucking markets: Conditions ease but carriers retain pricing power
Carriers are still exercising optionality and charging a premium to drive into backhaul markets.
Asset operators: Roll on highway, roll on along
All signals are flashing green for truckload carriers. Growing revenue per driver per week and falling empty-mile percentages pushed operating ratios down, giving carriers more confidence to purchase new and used equipment. In most lanes in the country, carriers hold pricing power and will be able to increase contract
Trucking Markets: Rates, rejections near YTD highs
Expect volatility to the upside in Q4.
Which trucking lanes are the easiest to price?
The pricing accuracy of any given lane is based on its daily load volumes. In financial jargon, volume is referred to as liquidity. The more volume, the less friction in buying and selling, the more liquid a transaction becomes. Stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) are one
Reshoring on the rise
Global trade as a percentage of global GDP peaked in 2006 for a variety of reasons. Geopolitical tensions are creating more friction in global trade, while automation is smoothing out the labor cost arbitrages that shifted manufacturing from the U.S. to Asia in the 1980s and ’90s. Meanwhile, more
Trucking markets: Shippers capitulate ahead of Q4
Shippers, especially retailers, are giving ground on price to secure capacity for what promises to be an unpredictable Q4.
Trucking Markets: the flattening
Rates pulled back by 1.3% w/w, but moves by brokerages and carriers indicate they think the rally has legs.
Trucking Markets: Rejections and rates take a breather
Tender rejections have fallen for a week, but that doesn't mean that rates will.
ELD technology’s stake in digitalizing the trucking industry
Although driver hours of service (HOS) is now firmly sewn into the trucking industry, it was a subject of contention in the months leading up to the electronic logging device (ELD) mandate in late 2017. U.S. trucking fleets were mandated to install ELDs as gatekeepers to monitor cab activity
Reefer markets: Expecting a strong finish to 2020
The reefer market is following the dry van market, broadly speaking, and setting new highs in tendered loads, tender rejections and spot rates. The average reefer spot rate on Truckstop.com’s load boards rose to $3.33/mile last week, the highest rate in several years. Reefer capacity is tighter now than
Trucking markets: Brokers lose control of spot rates
It’s official: Freight brokers have officially lost control of truckload spot rates. One of the most commonly cited benchmarks in the freight brokerage industry is the important, dense and liquid Chicago to Atlanta lane, which most brokers worth their salt can quote in their sleep. Long suppressed by carrier density
Trucking Markets: Tender rejections stable at 25%
Everything is in place for a face-ripping rally in Q4.
Asset operators: Revenues recover, but what about costs?
The business environment for asset-based trucking carriers continues to improve: Empty mile percentages are lower and revenue per driver per week is up. There are headwinds blowing against asset operators, though: The rack-to-retail diesel fuel spread is no longer doing much work on the carriers’ income statements, and operating expenses
Trucking Markets: LAX to DAL breaks $3/mile
Relationships between shippers and transportation providers are being reshuffled.
Dallas tender rejections now exceed 25%
Los Angeles and Dallas are driving the national market.
Reefer markets: Reefer takes a leg up in August
Reefer markets took a leg up in August, supported by fundamentally strong demand, constrained capacity, and a renewed sense of confidence among carriers that now is the time to exercise pricing power. In spot markets, carriers are falling off loads, naming their price, and managing yield. 3PLs are giving
Trucking markets: Falling off, giving back
There's a routing guide shake-up happening right now.
Trucking markets: Can you take me higher?
Rejections and rates set to go higher from here on sustained shifts in consumer behavior.
Multimodal COVID analysis
In our view, COVID-related demand and capacity dislocations have touched off an upcycle in trucking markets supported by fundamentally constrained capacity. This week, a new batch of corporate earnings (UPS, WERN, USX, CHRW) helped us understand how transports experienced that volatility. In 2020, COVID-related volatility hit parcel carriers first
Trucking markets: Rolling through the summer
We don't think that capacity will loosen soon, but upward pressure on contract rates will take time.