Though temp-control trucks are heading in every direction, refrigerated trucking companies headed to 10 markets more than any others. Do any of these surprise you?
Before we get going, what is a temp-control trailer?
Temp-control vans, or more commonly referred to as reefers or refrigerated trucks, are a specialized trailer for products – most commonly temperature-sensitive items such as food and pharmaceuticals – that require specific conditions to avoid spoiling. These trailers are equipped with built-in refrigeration that keeps the goods consistent throughout its journey. You may remember news discussing how COVID-19 vaccines needed to be kept at specific temperatures or they would be ineffective. That’s the perfect job for a reefer.
Reefer loads have all sorts of specialized equipment in the truck to keep them safe. They’re insulated, have advanced thermostats, a cooling unit, seals around all doors, and specialized airflow mechanisms.
Paired with additional cooling elements like insulated packing and dry ice, these trailers are excellent at maintaining the quality of temperature-sensitive goods. Balto would be jealous.
As you might’ve guessed, reefers are expensive and require more maintenance than a flatbed or a dry van. As such, reefer loads are often outsourced or handled by 3PLs.
How did we gather this data?
DAT insights comes from over $137 billion in freight invoices, the largest dataset of its kind. DAT contributors send their data to us, and in exchange, are able to compare their rates to the industry at large. From that dataset, we built RateView, the industry standard for pricing.
DAT iQ insights pair well with the industry’s largest truckload marketplace, DAT One. Working together, we can take a look and identify the top 10 temp-controlled markets of 2022. Keep in mind, this list is comprised of both spot and contract freight shipments. If you ever saw a reefer headed down the interstate, here’s where they might’ve been headed:
- Atlanta, GA
- Chicago, IL
- Dallas, TX
- Fort Worth, TX
- Fresno, CA
- Fayetteville, AR
- Joilet, IL
- Los Angeles, CA
- Lakeland, FL
- Ontario, CA
Where can you get insights like this?
All of this information is available to you. Thousands of logistics professionals have access to these datasets and use them to know the best way to move freight – they aren’t guessing at any of this.
They use DAT’s suite of tools like:
DAT iQ – DAT iQ is a library of proprietary analytics and 360-degree views of real-time market conditions that drive the industry’s most innovative decisions-makers. With DAT iQ in their back pocket, they guide companies to profitability and growth. When we talk about not guessing and instead knowing what’s going on, this is the secret stuff. DAT iQ benchmark analytics features show professionals what the competition is doing, helps them build dynamic and adaptive budgets that factor in market conditions and seasonality, do deep-dive evaluations on RFPs and routing guides, and identify opportunities quickly and efficiently.
RateView – Pricing is where the best of the best separate themselves, and RateView helps them do it. With RateView, you can get a look at how every logistics pro handles pricing – your rates will always be competitive. But even better than that, RateView’s powerful forecasting capabilities give you a look at what rates may be in the days ahead, so you won’t get caught flat-footed. Over 7 million daily predictions and 13-month pricing histories inform the nation’s best and brightest to profitability and success.
DAT’s Market Updates Blog – We don’t want to keep all of this behind a paywall, though. Our in-house experts comb through these datasets and write in-depth articles and share them for free, because we all win when our industry succeeds.
DAT’s Weekly Trendlines – Keeping with the theme of free insights and analysis, our weekly Trendlines are yours without a price, too. There, you’ll find a quick snapshot of weekly fuel prices, spot loads posted, spot load trucks available, national averages for van, flatbed, and reefer spot rates, along with a weekly brief that gives an expert’s take on what we’re seeing, and another collection of resources at the bottom where you can learn more about those trends.
DAT iQ Live – Every week on YouTube and LinkedIn, these same experts host a live discussion breaking down the industry. Like our weekly trendlines, they’ll discuss what the industry is up against, the factors contributing to the market conditions, and solutions professionals can pursue to capitalize on opportunities. Anytime you want, you can hop in and listen.
Check out Freight Focus, our annual report
Freight Focus, our annual report, is DAT’s year in review. If you like these sorts of market analyses and discussions, we put our heads together and wrote an overview of 2022. Once we found the trends that defined the year, we look ahead see how they might influence 2023. Click here to read the report.
If you look at the above list and worry you’re in the wrong market, don’t fret. Lucky for you, you don’t need to be in these cities to find trucks or freight. With DAT, you’re not restricted by geography – you can find freight or trucks wherever you are. DAT’s LoadBoard is the industry’s largest, most used, and most up-to-date. You won’t have any trouble finding exactly what you’re looking for no matter where you are.
Ready to get going? Click here to find them.
