"Flatbed carriers are capable of hauling a wide range of loads, from raw materials like steel, to manufactured goods like pipe and lumber, to heavy machinery and even produce," said Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT. "As the weather warms up, the number of flatbed loads naturally increases as construction, agriculture and other activities that use flatbed trailers pick up."
The total number of loads posted to the DAT marketplace jumped 4.7% during the week ending April 11 but the number of available trucks on the network was up 5.3%. Balanced growth in the number of loads and posted capacity kept spot truckload van and refrigerated truckload rates in check last week.
DAT Freight & Analytics recently introduced Multilane Rates for Ratecast, a feature that enables Ratecast subscribers to build price forecasts into their workflows, complete RFPs in less time and improve their chances of winning bids.
The ratio of available loads to trucks more than doubled in March from the previous year, according to online freight marketplace DAT Solutions LLC, while the average cost to hire a big rig rose by 41.9%, to $2.65 a mile.
“It’s one of those developing stories,” Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Solutions, told Transport Topics. “The metaphor of a rippling effect is very appropriate, because most of the experts think that there is a ripple effect that’s going to last well into the summer.”
Spot load posts on the DAT load board were up nearly 130% YoY in March, but capacity continues to be an issue with truck postings falling almost 7% YoY. Comparing levels to March 2020 is difficult given the freight environment in the early days of the pandemic, but spot posts were up even more (232%) compared to the same period in 2019.
Ken Adamo, DAT’s Chief of Analytics, said: “In a volatile rate environment, forward-looking pricing tools are essential to producing a competitive bid. With Multilane Rates and pricing forecasts up to 52 weeks in advance, Ratecast subscribers can now confidently navigate the bidding process by incorporating the industry’s most reliable predictive and historical rates into their workflows and analysis.
Assistant editor Mackenna Moralez discusses how the transportation industry is moving forward with data and analytics with Ken Adamo, DAT Freight & Analytics.
Spot rates remained high but showed little movement compared to the previous week despite the urgency of shippers to move freight before the close of the quarter.
Truckload van and refrigerated freight volumes leveled off while the flatbed load-to-truck ratio jumped sharply last week, said DAT Freight & Analytics, which operates the industry’s largest load board network. The total number of loads posted to the DAT network increased 0.7% and the number of trucks dipped 1.3% week over week; rates held steady for van and reefer freight while flatbed pricing reflected strong demand for trucks.