The Market right now is very stressful for freight brokers. There is extreme volatility that is very difficult to manage for freight brokers, carriers and shippers.
The freight market continues to get hotter and tighter and volumes have shown no sign of slowing down. Last week we saw volumes continue to grow as exact same pace. The extreme magnitude growth of freight volumes across the USA will most probably continue to Labor Day.
Some of the hottest regions have been West Coast, Los Angeles, CA as we thought has continued to be one of the strongest active areas. Atlanta, GA is the hottest of all areas and Dallas TX also showing incredible increase in volumes with a lot of capacity going out to the west coast, it is getting more difficult for the spot market to manage.
Pennsylvania and New Jersey have also reached unsustainable market rates. We predict this trend will not stop and will continue to grow this week.
We expect rates will continue to increase this week, as carriers continue to be in a strong negotiation position, we expect more shippers will be looking to push out volumes as fast as they can to reduce their inventory as the end of the months is upon us this week.
Imports are also continuing to grow affecting the market. We have looking at the number of inbound sea freight to ports such as Los Angeles, and Savannah which are 3 to 4 weeks out. Again the numbers are high and this will of course continue to place further strain on freight volumes and truck capacity and availability.
One of the greatest challenges for carriers is getting back to where they are most needed causing more disruption and mismanagement in the spot freight market.
Weather Storm Warning
On top of all of this we also have tow tropical storm warnings, TS Laura and TS Marco. https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/. So be aware so we can be sure to be prepared in the 2020 series of events.
In the coming weeks one of the factors that may reduce freight volumes and rates may be the second round of stimulus checks. If the second round stimulus does not happen then this will impact consumer confidence and slow down spending.
However consumers are spending right now with ecommerce spending hitting record spend, such as Walmart’s US ecommerce sales hit 97% annual growth in its most recent quarter, and Target also beat Wall Street expectations with online digital sales growing 195%. Other areas such as spending on home improvements also continued to impact the movement of products in the United States.
As the consumer side has had incredible growth, U.S. manufacturing production has not had the same growth and factory job losses persist. The road to recovery for manufacturing likely remains long and bumpy, with the survey from the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) showing hiring at factories remaining subdued for a year now, and we believe capital expenditure will stay tight in the manufacturing sector for this year.
We thank you for your time and hope you found our text interesting and useful. Please note all of the above is based on our experience, research and opinions and should at no time be used or given as any form of business consulting.
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.