Activity on the DAT network of load boards slowed during the Fourth of July holiday week as the number of loads posted declined 20% compared to the previous week. The number of truck posts fell 8.5%.
Average rates moved higher, however, as shippers pushed freight out the door before the end of the quarter on June 30. DAT’s Ratecast predictive pricing model expects July 5 to have been the peak for the national dry van rate and July 7 to be the high point for reefers. Look for rates to decline through the rest of the summer.
National average spot rates, June
**Van: $1.81 per mile, 21 cents above May
**Flatbed: $2.07 per mile, up 17 cents
**Reefer: $2.15 per mile, up 12 cents
Those are rolling averages for the month and current rates have trended upward. On July 5, the van spot rate averaged $2.03 a mile, the flatbed rate was $2.15, and the reefer rate was $2.30.
Peak produce: Trend to watch
The USDA reported that seasonal truckloads of produce dropped 17% last week on fewer imports. Domestic shipments rose 2% week over week; that’s around 600 additional loads over the prior week. Produce volumes from Mexico typically tail off quickly this time of year and are now down 27% week over week.
On the West Coast, all produce markets reported tight capacity. May and June are peak months for California strawberries in the Watsonville-Salinas regions of the San Francisco market. Regional moves from there to Ontario, Los Angeles, and Fresno averaged $3.01, $3.05, and $4.04 per mile respectively.
In Texas, Fort Worth and Lubbock were hot markets for available trucks. The average rate on 58 origin-destination pairings increased from $1.90 to $2.09 per mile, with shorter, regional moves to Shreveport, Louisiana, and Little Rock, Arkansas, paying averages of $3.23 and $2.94, respectively.
