Despite rising demand from swelling truck freight volume, national average spot van and refrigerated truck rates plunged to two-and-half-year lows in March, according to a report from DAT Freight & Analytics.
Beaverton, Ore.-based trucking intelligence firm DAT Freight & Analytics reports that refrigerated spot truckload rates dropped to a two-and-half-year low in March.
Last year, record-high diesel prices squeezed margins at logistics companies across the country but as those rates have fallen a new challenge has emerged: low demand.
The DAT Truckload Volume Index (TVI) increased for all three equipment types for the first time since July 2022, but national average spot van and refrigerated ("reefer") rates plunged to two-and-half-year lows in March, said DAT Freight & Analytics, which operates the industry’s largest online freight marketplace and DAT iQ data analytics service.
Inbound Logistics editors selected the Top 100 Logistics IT Providers—the companies offering the innovations their customers need to streamline supply chain operations.
The freight market is expected to get back into a more normal rhythm. We’ll have the latest details from Robert Rouse of DAT in today’s Market Update
When mortgage rates began rising, flatbed carriers recognized it wouldn’t take long for demand in shipments of building materials for new home construction to weaken.
The rates shippers pay for spot dry-van truckload capacity continued to drop in March, falling $0.05 per mile from February to $2.36 per mile on average, according to an analysis of data provided by Cargo Chief, DAT Freight & Analytics, Loadsmart, and shippers and brokers surveyed by the Journal of Commerce.
Tens of thousands of small trucking companies have left the US freight market over the past year, but that has largely been offset by companies that have entered the market, and that is keeping pressure on pricing, according to Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics.
Chad Kennedy, Group Product Manager for DAT Freight & Analytics, provided an overview of various issues and themes his compamy addresses for its customers on a daily basis, including: the keys to sound RFP management; current market trends and dynamics; and what steps shippers can take to tighten up costs or secure reliable capacity before the market turns again, among others.