Spot Market

March’s TVI dry van freight reading—at 305—was up 23% compared to February, while the refrigerated TVI—at 206—and the flatbed TVI—at 247—were up 13% and 24%, respectively, for the same period. DAT said that these readings indicate that more loads moved in March, a month which also had more shipping days than February.

Logistics Management Group News Editor Jeff Berman recently spoke with Ken Adamo, Chief of Analytics at DAT Freight & Analytics, the operator of the largest truckload freight marketplace in North America, and Chris Caplice, executive director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Center for Transportation & Logistics (CTL), and also DAT Chief Scientist, about various topics, including: the possibilty of a freight recession, contract and spot rates, fuel, and inflation, among other subjects.

February’s reading—at 227—was down 3% compared to January’s 229, which marked the highest-ever TVI reading in January. And while load-posting activity was off sequentially, the number of loads posted to the DAT One load board network saw a solid 24.1% annual increase.

Company officials said that it will leverage this investment “to deliver a ground-breaking neutral platform, driven by machine-learning, for predictive pricing intelligence as well as revenue and yield optimization.”

January’s reading—at 229—was off 3% compared to December, but it still represented the highest-ever TVI reading in January, while posting a 15% annual increase. DAT said that the number of loads posted to the DAT One load board network saw a 34.7% increase, from December to January, and were up 104.7% annually.

December’s reading—at 236—was off 3% compared to November, a month which matched October in setting a record for the number of loads moved by motor carriers in a month, according to DAT. And national average truckload spot van and reefer rates saw gains for the seventh consecutive month, with the average van rate hitting the $3 per mile mark for the first time. What’s more, van and refrigerated (reefer) truckload freight rates each set new records, up 21.9% and 29.5%, respectively,...

November’s TVI reading—at 239—matched October, which initially set a new record for the number of loads moved by motor carriers in a month, according to DAT. And DAT said that national average truckload spot, van, and reefer rates headed up for the sixth consecutive month, with contract van and reefer (refrigerated) rates having seen increases each month going back to May 2020.

DHL Supply Chain, a subsidiary of Deutsche Post DHL Group, said it has established a partnership with Emerge, a provider of its proprietary Digital Freight Marketplace (DFM) and TMS focused on accelerating productivity and increasing visibility for supply chain stakeholders and freight procurement. Through this partnership, DHL is integrating Emerge’s Spot Marketplace capabilities into the DHL LLP Control Tower and TMS offerings, with a focus on providing timely and market competitive coverage for spot market freight.

The most recent edition of the DAT Truckload Volume Index (TVI), for the month of October, which was recently released by DAT Freight & Analytics, again set a new all-time high, with the firm observing that truckload prices, at all-time highs, reflect how shippers are willing to pay premium rates to move their freight.

September’s TVI reading—at 229—fell 1% from August. Despite the decline, this still marks the highest reading for any September on record, according to DAT. The TVI hit its all-time high in June, coming in at 237.

The new offering, entitled Market Rate IQ, was created by the company’ technology incubator, C.H. Robinson Labs, and company officials said that it is the only tool that highlights to shippers which factors in their United States spot pricing are market-driven and which ones are outside of their control. What’s more, it explained that it is the lone tool incorporating DAT’s RateView, a database comprised of U.S. spot freight lanes.

The August reading for the TVI—at 231—increased 2% from July and posted a 17% annual increase and is one of the five highest months on record. July came in at 222, which was preceded by June’s 237 (the all-time record), and May’s 212.

DAT reported that the number of available loads on the spot truckload freight market increased 0.3%, and the number of available trucks, for the week, was off 1.2% on a sequential basis. The firm explained that while spot market truckload rates usually see a seasonal dip following the July 4 holiday, that was not the case this year, with rates remaining high throughout the month.

Paced by a combination of rising truckload volumes, due largely to high levels of retail imports and peak produce shipments, June spot and contract truckload rates reached a new record, for the June edition of the DAT Truckload Volume Index, which was recently released by DAT Freight & analytics, an online marketplace for spot market truckload freight, tuned in another strong month of performance.

DAT reported that May spot truckload volume rates hit a new record, even though volume declines from April to May, which the firm said is an indication that “transportation networks are not growing fast enough to keep up with demand.” With the May Truckload Volume Index coming in at 212, that marked a 6% decline compared to April, while still marking the fourth highest month on record.