Have Van Rates Turned the Corner?

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We had a turnaround in van trends last week, reversing course from the declines we’ve been seeing since mid-January. Volumes and rates rose nearly across the board.

Some of that could be due to shippers needing to move freight before the end of the month, so we’ll have to wait and see if van rates have actually turned the corner. Still, this is the second week in a row with rising volumes, so this could be a strong early start to the spring shipping season.

DAT provides the largest and most trusted digital freight marketplace in the trucking industry, with more than 179 million loads and trucks posted annually, plus insights into current spot market and contract rates based on $45 billion in real transactions.

Truckload demand out of California has lagged in the past month or so, compared to the rest of the country, but load counts were up big in Los Angeles and Stockton last week. Chicago had the biggest uptick in volumes, up 9%.

From a pricing standpoint, the big story was that rates rose on 66 of the top 100 van lanes.

All rates below include fuel surcharges and are based on real transactions between brokers and carriers.

RISING

Big increases on regional lanes:

There was a major jump in rates on the Columbus, OH, to Buffalo, NY, lane, which rose 53¢ to an average of $3.90 /mile
Philadelphia to Boston rates also rose 18¢ to $3.83/mile
There was a rare spike on the lane from Boston to Allentown, PA, which was up 15¢ last week at $2.33/mile
Memphis to Charlotte was up 21¢ to $2.53/mile
Out West, Seattle to Spokane, WA, bounced back 15¢ to $3.05/mile

FALLING

The Columbus to Buffalo lane was way up, but a couple other inbound lanes to Buffalo were down sharply: