Tag: spot market: Page 13

Business

Fuel prices, post-ELD pressure sustain elevated rate picture on spot market

Rising fuel costs, topping $3/gal. nationally in recent weeks, have added pressure on freight rates, slowing their seasonal decline a bit. But the bigger story remains a capacity crunch that’s put truckers in the driver’s seat on rates, partly a result of proliferating ELDs.

February 1, 2018

Business

Mid-January freight slowdown materializes in vans, reefers, though rates remain elevated

Normal seasonal declines in load posting activity have been occurring at a much slower pace than the pace of marked increases “after the ELD mandate went into effect,” says DAT’s Matt Sullivan. “Prices are still very elevated in many parts of the country.”

January 25, 2018

Business

Conditions ripe for driver pay hikes as tight market, tax cuts could force carriers’ hand

The corporate tax cut in the tax reform package delivers “real money,” in the words of one FTR analyst, “so it’s a real opportunity” for driver pay growth. “I’d expect drivers will say … ‘OK, corporate America, this is what you asked for. Now it’s time to give back.'”

January 18, 2018

Business

Spot market demand indicators drop but remain favorable for truckers

Load post counts were on the rise last week, but truck posts rose even higher after the holidays. It was the first week the van load-to-truck ratio declined since the ELD mandate went into effect. Yet the ratio was still 10.7 van loads per truck, way above what’s been historically typical, for any time of year.

January 17, 2018

Overdrive Radio

‘Should have planned better’ only goes so far when road realities are at play

As so many owner-operators have noted in past, “planning better” will only get you so far when it comes to ELDs, a 14-hour rule with rigid ends and little opportunity to extend it or stop it for mid-period rest. Owner-operator Mark Kirbyson, in this latest edition of Overdrive Radio, concurs wholeheartedly.

January 16, 2018

Business

Spot market records broken again for first week of the year

With on-highway anecdotes of $5-plus/mile rates not hard to come by, the weekly spot market demand report gets a little closer to revealing ELDs’ rates impact in van, reefer. The first week of the new year “has broken all the records we set when we ended the old year,” says DAT’s Matt Sullivan.

January 10, 2018

Channel 19

Don’t leave money on the table

We are in a freight market owner-operator Gary Buchs believes to be “totally unpredictable” at this point, he says. “Weather, plus demand” generally, “is driving” such unpredictability, much of it on the plus side for rate pressure for owner-operators, “through the roof.”

January 4, 2018

Business

Van rates, flatbed demand close 2017 strong on spot market

“Something of a perfect storm” closed out the last full week of 2017 for van rates. Winter weather, extended vacations over the holidays, end-of-year freight urgency all boosted van rates/demand. Flatbed demand indicators — load-to-truck ratio, primarily — were strong, but rates hadn’t moved.

January 3, 2018

Channel 19

Business outlook trending pessimistic in the new year for owner-operators

And … a few late Christmas wishes from a variety of owner-operators on Overdrive’s Facebook page, with their rigs dressed up for the holiday last week. . .

December 31, 2017

Business

Spot market extremely tight, favoring truckers, ahead of Christmas week

A lot of truckers took time off last week ahead of Christmas, which meant there were already fewer trucks on the road. It was also the first week under the electronic logging device mandate, and the combination of the upcoming holiday and new regulations pushed the national load-to-truck ratio for vans up higher than it’s ever been – 10.1 loads per truck.

December 29, 2017

Business

Spot market update: Closer-to-normal trends on offer in the last week, though the ELD mandate could change that

Dry van volumes were pretty similar last week to the week before. Rates started to settle down a little after peaks post-Thanksgiving, and the surge in volumes that sent prices skyward on the West Coast is mostly in the rearview – all normal stuff for this time of year. Then the ELD mandate happened. …

December 20, 2017

Business

Reefer temps cool a degree during between-holidays ‘lull’ on spot market, but demand, rates continue strong

Van rates are at their highest national average in three years, and though many of the crazy-high averages for reefer lanes have fallen back down to earth in the last week, reefer rates are still a good bit higher than usual for this time of year.

December 14, 2017