DC Velocity: Truckload freight volumes and contract prices stayed high in March despite expensive gas
Spot market prices dipped for the month but are still high historically, ATA and DAT say.
Spot market prices dipped for the month but are still high historically, ATA and DAT say.
The GOT Truckers Act seeks fair compensation for truck drivers. Now, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association wants its members to reach out to their respective lawmakers and ask them to support the bill.
Weakening spot market rates and skyrocketing fuel costs in March overshadowed strong truckload freight volumes and record-high prices for loads moving under contract, according to DAT Freight & Analytics.
Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Ken Adamo, Chief of Analytics at DAT Freight & Analytics, the operator of the largest truckload freight marketplace in North America, and Chris Caplice, executive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL), and also DAT Chief Scientist, about various topics, including: the possibilty of a freight recession, contract and spot rates, fuel, and inflation, among other subjects.
As transportation costs in the US rise, shippers are consolidating more loads and limiting the number of partial shipments, which in effect is creating truckload spot market capacity, according to Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics, the largest US spot market load board provider.
The shift of containerized freight from the West Coast to the Gulf Coast and Southeast is absorbing truck capacity in those regions and pushing up spot rates, including rates from Houston to California.
Coming out of the pandemic, spot freight markets presented drivers with some of the best conditions in trucking's century-old and turbulent history, but as spot rates have softened for vans and reefers and diesel prices remain very high in recent weeks, some in trucking media are predicting a "trucking bloodbath" and a wave of bankruptcies to hit smaller, newer trucking companies.
Whenever the popular media begins paying significant, or even obsessive, attention to an economic or business issue, you can bet it is a lagging, rather than leading, indicator of a critical problem that may have a global impact.
Transportation leaders should debunk these six common myths to help their C-level executives understand truckload freight and get executive buy-in.
We’re at the starting line for the U.S. domestic produce season now. What does that mean for reefer carriers? Dean Croke with DAT explains.