Each holiday season, a tree, typically 60 to 85 feet tall, is chosen from one of the 154 National Forests to become the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree. This decades-long tradition highlights America’s public lands and promotes conservation and forestry. The U.S. Forest Service selects a different National Forest each year, looking for a tree with a perfect shape and density for the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol.
Get the clearest, most accurate view of the truckload marketplace with data from DAT iQ.
Tune into DAT iQ Live, live on YouTube or LinkedIn, 10am ET every Tuesday.
This year’s 53-foot red fir, “Silver Belle,” was harvested from Nevada’s Carson Ranger District. It has embarked on a long, cross-country whistle-stop tour to Washington, D.C., loaded onto a specially designed Knight-Swift Transportation truck and trailer. The tour, which started on November 1st can be found here.
Kenworth Truck Company, a long-standing sponsor of the initiative, recommended Knight-Swift as this year’s tree hauler. This recommendation was based on Knight-Swift’s exceptional safety record and industry leadership. Michael Porter, a driver from Swift Transportation’s Phoenix, Arizona Terminal, has been selected for this year’s transport, recognized for his professional reputation, excellent service, and passion for driving.
Flatbed Market Conditions
Flatbed load post volumes decreased by 12% last week, and with equipment posts remaining largely unchanged, the load-to-truck ratio also dropped by 12%, settling at 18.45 for the week. In contrast to the overall decline, Lakeland, Florida’s largest flatbed market, saw a 25% surge in load post volumes last week after four weeks of decreases. This increase led to a $0.06 per mile rise in outbound spot rates, which averaged $1.41 per mile.
Houston, the nation’s largest flatbed market, also experienced a volume increase of 6% last week. This pushed spot rates up by a penny on the high-volume lane west to Lubbock, reaching $2.40 per mile. Truckload volumes in this region have recently benefited from a significant jump in the number of oil and gas drilling rigs in the Permian Basin, which increased from three to 253 last week, according to the latest weekly report from Baker Hughes.
National flatbed spot rates
Last week, the flatbed spot rates experienced the largest single-week drop since the start of August, falling $0.04 per mile to a national average of $2.01 per mile. At that level, spot rates are still 3% or $0.06 per mile higher than last year and 2017.
