“The pendulum swings both ways,” said Ken Adamo, chief of analytics at DAT. For instance, he said, the sudden deluge of loads in early March — freight like bottled water, toilet paper and refrigerated foods — caused rates to spike on the spot market
The national average spot van rate hovered around $1.50 a mile during the week ending May 3, a four-year low despite improving freight volumes, said DAT Solutions, which operates the DAT load board network.
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To say it’s not a trucker’s market right now is a mighty big understatement. Truckload rates tell the story.
The U.S. economy is likely in the midst of its deepest recession since the end of World War II, when modern records that tracked the nation’s gross domestic product and unemployment rates were standardized.
The stories from owner-operators about low freight rates abound.
CNBC’s Frank Holland reports that small truck companies may face bankruptcy without government aid.
Supply chain operations were just returning to normal in 2019, after a turbulent, two-year period of rising rates and intermittent capacity shortages. Then along came the coronavirus outbreak, and everything changed.
Lockdowns to stem the spread of COVID-19 are reducing loads for truckers as well as the rates they are paid.
Truck drivers are facing steeply declining pay rates in the wake of this pandemic. The drivers running their own business are facing the worst of it.