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.
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US spot truckload freight hit new highs in January, nearly $1 a mile higher than a year ago, according to DAT Freight & Analytics.
The rise in fuel prices is slowing a decline in spot rates while also potentially suppressing base revenue for some carriers, experts said.
The president's requests to Congress include funding for ports, highways, electrification and domestic manufacturing.