Reefer Rates Respond to New Regulations and Pre-Holiday Urgency

< Back to posts

Last week was a short week, as most carriers needed to get drivers home in time for the Christmas weekend. Still, demand for reefer trucks was sky high last week, with volumes up out of big produce markets in California, Texas, and Florida.

Combine all that with the tighter capacity that came about as a result of the ELD mandate going into effect, and you get higher rates out of nearly every major market for refrigerated freight.

All rates below include fuel surcharges and are based on real transactions between brokers and carriers.

RISING

Just like with dry van freight, Dallas posted the biggest increases, with the average outbound rates up 13%

  • The lane from Dallas to Denver shot up 53¢, to $2.58/mile.
  • Reefer rates out of Miami also surged, and the lane to Baltimore added 54¢ to an average of $2.28/mile

California lane rates had some dramatic increases:

  • Sacramento to Portland, OR, soared 91¢ to $3.78/mile
  • Ontario to Seattle was up another 62¢ to $3.62/mile

FALLING

Green Bay, WI, did not have such a great week. They had declining volume and rates for outbound reefers, AND the Packers were eliminated from the playoffs for the first time in a decade. Not a good week at all.

  • Green Bay to Minneapolis dropped 18¢, to $2.96/mile
  • Green Bay to Des Moines tumbled 71¢ to $2.61/mile

Find loads, trucks and lane-by-lane rate information in DAT load boards, including rates from DAT RateView.

Related Posts

Demand for dry van equipment continued to slide last week, along with rates. We saw it coming, as load-to-truck ratios

Spot market demand for dry van truckload shipments picked up steam again last week, with retail freight leading to tighter

By and large, spring was not kind to carriers, so the higher rates we’ve been seeing in recent weeks are