LATEST ADVISORY SPOT MARKET UPDATE

Spot volumes have continued to climb and are above what we have seen over the last two years and carriers continue to be in a strong position.

We have not been for the last few weeks in any form of seasonal market trends or performance.  We are in uncharted territory seeing a continued upward trend in both spot market volumes and rates. We continue to monitor how long we see the volume and spot rates be elevated.

Volume to truck ratios we are showing trucking capacity is over all at its max capacity and we don’t see any reason this will be any different moving into Q3 and Q4 of this year unless there is a dramatic change in the supply or goods in quality or availability and rates may continue to move in an upward trend for both the truckload and intermodal carriers. 

Key Economic Indicators

We would like to point out as a key and important note that the macro economics data being released, the economic indicators, are not in anyway showing that we are in this situation due to economic out-performance. 

Amongst many macro outputs it is quite the opposite, GDP is down, unemployment is up and company earnings in many sectors are down. Overall the US economy as with the global economy is down. So it’s vital to remember, in our opinion, that truckload volumes are not being driven higher by economic out-performance, but instead, by a strong shift in consumer behavior.

We believe the consumer behavior has changed dramatically, which include more people staying local and not spending on travel, with that higher demand for grocery, and greater e-commerce purchases. This may not last, but it will most likely last longer than some expect and these market conditions may be resilient as a result to the shutdowns and consumer behavior.

The OTR Truck Market

The last 7 days showed a mixed market for Van, Reefer and Flatbed freight. All trends continue to show an increase in volumes and rates:

• Dry vans showed the weakest demand across the nation with some parts of southern California, Texas and some east coast high demand including Ohio, Indiana, Virginia Carolinas and as far up as Pennsylvania.
• Refrigerated, continued to show much stronger demand with continued tightened capacity all across the US. 
• Flat beds, of all the OTR modes, flat beds have shown the strongest demand and growth. The flat bed market showed a significant jump last week and with a much stronger push could be a signal much of the construction industry may have re-started.

Weather Report

A 5.1-magnitude earthquake took place in northern North Carolina on Sunday morning. It’s the strongest quake to shake the state in more than 100 years according to the North Carolina Geological Survey. As a result there are a number of road work repairs that may cause additional delays and impact the freight market further causing increased demand in these areas.

We are here to help

Contact Us to tell us what freight we can help you move this week. As always we are here to help you move your freight.

If you have any further needs or requirements please contact us and we will do all what we can to serve you.

Have a great week, stay safe and thank you.