Four factors added up to create extraordinary pressure on spot market truck capacity, driving rates up as high as we’ve seen them since at least 2010, when we established the freight rates database that forms the foundation of DAT RateView.
When we declared that the freight recession was over back in January of 2017, we expected it to be a bounce-back year for the trucking industry. What we didn’t anticipate was just how much demand on the spot market would explode.
DAT Industry Pricing Analyst Mark Montague says that the spot market has seen strong growth during the past few months and he expects that growth to continue at least through the end of the year.
Hurricane Irma's impact on freight appears to be following patterns that are more typical of a big weather event, while Harvey was exceptional in many ways.That's because Florida is more of a destination than an origin during this season, but Houston is a manufacturing powerhouse that also serves as a major freight hub for rail and sea traffic, as well as trucking.
Hurricane Harvey is going to have a big impact on freight transportation and logistics in the weeks and months to come. Houston is a huge hub for all types and modes of freight, including not only trucks, but also rail and sea.
An independent financial research firm has developed a set of freight barometers based on data from DAT. The company says the barometers provide predictive value in determining the magnitude and direction of trends in both spot and contract market rates, and for the overall economy.
While the average load-to-truck ratio in April was 3.5 for vans and 6.6 for reefers, the flatbed load-to-truck ratio was 43.7 loads per truck! That’s the highest monthly load-truck-ratio we've seen in years.
