Topic: Rates and Pricing

DAT officials explained that despite higher freight volumes, March’s low rates ended what it called a challenging quarter experienced by the majority of truckload carriers and freight brokers, with the exception of flatbed freight, as spot market pricing and demand have been steady year-to-date.

For February, the most recent month for which data is available, the TCI fell to -5.17, below January’s -1.71 reading. This was preceded by December’s -6.1 and November’s -7.94. That was preceded by October’s -11.25, its lowest level since the April 2020 all-time low, at -28.66. The September TCI reading came in at -2.35.

The new edition of the TD Cowen/AFS Freight Index, which was released today by investment firm TD Cowen and Shreveport, La.-based 3PL and freight audit and payment company AFS Logistics LLC, was in line with highlighted rate disparities across various freight transportation modes.

December’s van freight TVI came in at 215, down 4% compared to November and down 3.6% annually. This reading was 5.9% higher than December 2020, as well as the second-highest December reading in record, according to DAT. And the refrigerated (reefer) TVI, at 167, was off 4.0%, from November to December, and down 1.2% annually, with the flatbed TVI off 11.8%, from November to December, and up 3.2% annually.

FedEx Freight, the less-than-truckload subsidiary of global logistics and freight transportation services provider FedEx, announced it is rolling out a new pilot initiative, which it described as an industry changing space and pace pricing pilot for select customers.

Rate forecasts are always challenging for the rail and intermodal sector, says Jason Kuehn, vice president of the consultancy Oliver Wyman. But this one feels more difficult than most.

Shippers relying on maritime operators to get their goods to market have been slammed in recent months. Meanwhile container carriers are looking at 50%-plus percentage gains in revenue.

Wise executives are stepping up to improve the performance ability of their people through programs like this, and they will serve the domestic and international supply chain profession very well.

Convoy's digital freight network offers dynamic pricing that’s resilient to market volatility.

Despite a decline in demand for ocean cargo service at the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year, spot container freight rates soon began to increase, driven by carriers’ supply discipline, say shipping analysts for Fitch Ratings.

My humble advice to all logistics professionals: Pay attention to blockchain

Top less-than-truckload (LTL) executives and analysts are predicting a bullish year for the $46 billion sector in 2021. Despite disruptions from the coronavirus and resulting changes in demand levels from their customers, leading LTL companies are extracting rate increases in the mid-to-high single digits, according to carriers and analysts.

Make the business case for transportation management.

Chicago-based third-party logistics and technology-enabled transportation services provider Echo Global Logistics, and Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Blue Yonder (formerly JDA), a provider of AI-driven and end-to-end supply chain management services, said today that they have established a partnership, in which Echo will integrate Blue Yonder’s Dynamic Price Discovery offering, to automate rapid response price quoting and capacity for shippers.

Convoy officials said that this announcement now brings its total TMS integrations to 12, which, it added, makes the Convoy digital freight network (DFN) pricing capability the "most widely available in the industry”,

It would be in the best interest of all parties to speed up the adoption of digital standards and platforms for demand planning, tracking and settlement for all modes of transport.

Both shippers and carriers now must find ways to connect with our industry’s essential workers.