COVID-19 has sent freight rates for a rollercoaster ride over the past few months. New data shows just how volatile the ride has been – and gives a hint at where we’re headed in the months to come.
FTR, a transportation consulting firm, has put out a heatmap that shows what has been happening with freight spot rates, state by state, since the beginning of the year. There is a huge difference in rates depending on whether the loads were dry van, refer, flatbed, or specialized. The general trend was a dip from the end of January through all of February, then a spike in rates through late March. The dip corresponds with when China and the far East was hit by COVID-19. The spike corresponds with the sudden surge in consumers buying essential goods as COVID-19 began spreading quickly through North America.
Currently, spot rates in most states are still higher than normal. It looks as though the wave is on its way back down however. Rates are already beginning to fall even in states like New York which have been hit hardest by the Coronavirus.
According to Overdrive, OOs saw load-to-truck ratios peak the week of 3/22, and they are now falling even faster than they rose.
FreightWaves reports that on a conference call with clients on Wednesday, UBS freight transportation analysts predicted a “falloff” in freight volume both for trucks and rail in April and May. Many smaller carriers are expected to close down in response to a tightening of the freight market, leaving larger players like the megacarriers who can operate on thinner margins to pick up the pieces.
You can see the data on past freight rates state-by-state, broken down by load type on the FTR heatmap here.
Source: truckinginfo, fleetowner, overdrive, freightwaves, ftr, freightwaves
I would like to know why r we not getting tested for this u here about everyone getting tested why do we not get tested some of us r in 4 or 5 states a day
No one is being tested unless you have any of the symptoms. You won’t be tested just because you want to be.
Real good question especially when you consider the reports since Tuesday have been that they believe people who are asymptomatic are shedding the virus?
If they are not testing until you have symptoms showing what is the plan to deal with for the ones who are contagious but are asymptomatic?
SOMETHING REALLY STINKS HERE?
well these trucking company need to stand up and take care of them drivers give Proper PPE or some kind of Plastic jumpsuit and Mouth and nose and eye protection to check in with dock to load or unload but these company not doing that they are leaving it up to the shipper and receiving places to do that now remember when u get out of ur truck it may be already to late for u
Take matters into your own hands. Buy the PPE for yourself. You can’t rely on companies to do it for you. A $100 sent on your own health and safety is nothing compared to the time you’ll be not working because you got sick. Not to mention, it protects others as well and slows the spread of this thing.
Take matters into your own hands. Buy the PPE for yourself. We can’t rely on companies to do it for us. A measly $100 spent on our own health and safety is nothing compared to the $$$ lost because we got sick and can’t work. Not to mention, it protects others and slows the spread of this thing.
Virus or no virus, learn some damn punctuation!!!
Covid 19 has put a toll on truckers out there … I’m a over the road truck driver and you bascially at this point just are forced to take whatever you can get at this point to keep a job … It is really crazy and truck stops seem to be doing all they can to help us but finding food or decent places to eat is just crazy as we can’t through drive through with our trucks …. Everyone be safe out there as alot of crazy people robbing truckers out there in way they can ….
Be self reliant
Be responsible for you dont sit and wait for someone else to get it done. As far as food meals on wheels and uber eats or door dash.
Isn’t that amazing. Even in when trucking is needed the brokers have a way of screwing us. Get rid of brokers and you’ll see rates go up.
Youtube is full of local news doing puff pieces about truckers doing double duty to meet demand. What they’re not saying is that these are undesirable grocery warehouse loads that will cause the trucker to lose a day of productivity while be treated like a dog that pooped on the carpet. These loads will fall off when panic buying stops.
Right on!!👍👍as a owner operator, I Dispise Brokers,they are cow dung. They are like them telemarketer scammers,but probably making more money🤬
I agree. The brokers are getting the most money, by just pushing a pencil and sitting on their buts. We are driving long hrs, paying for all fuel and maintenance on these trucks. When are going to cut out the middle man??????
When you can get a majority of companies/drivers to agree to take action. Unfortunately, you can’t get two drivers to agree on the time of day, much less more substantive issues. I’ve said it 10,000 times. Trucking is the only business I know where the customer be it broker or shipper, sets the rates. If you call an electrician to your house, and tell him “hey, this is all I can pay” he will tell you to pound sand. You pay his rate or you don’t get service. Trucking should be no different. It’s just on a bigger scale. If people would stop hauling that chit for buck a mile, rates would go up. Until they do, you will continue to be forced into slave wages.
I’ve been sitting and sitting one day our wish will come to fruition and trucking will be better because it’s a $!17 show now and just been getting worse but we’re alive and hopefully we will prevail
probably all the lease drivers have to take any rate cause of high truck payments. And new drivers think $1.95 is great rate. Some should tell them how it used to be. but now all these foreign drivers will work for the $1.00 mile.
Yeah,blame it all on a foreign drivers!
Yeah,blame it all on a foreign drivers!!
THE ONLY WAY TO CUT OUT THE MIDDLEMAN IS TO GET YOUR OWN FREIGHT. TO DO THAT YOU HAVE TO DO THE MIDDLEMAN’S JOB BETTER THAN HE DOES.
Right
Yes sir . They need to make Laws to protect us from the brokers making more money than we do! Brokers should be accountable to the government and not allowed to make more than 25% of the full rate paid by the shipper!! This BS has put too many good truckers out of business!! We all need to stand up and demand help from the White House!!!
Found I had one broker taking 80% on high dollar loads, I don’t use them anymore. Found that I could negotiate cash shipments with the farms in CA, TX, NM, AZ. Frito buys all the taters I can get for them, Walmart buys most other produce. I get the 80% now!
one day when O/O are gone so will the brokers. it will be just big companies.
The day will NEVER come when they make laws restricting a brokers % of the load. Need to get real; this is a capitalist industry in a capitalist nation run by capitalists. If you want this to change you have to do something about it cause NOBODY is going to do it for you.
And by the way 25% for what they do is way too much! GET YOUR OWN FREIGHT PEOPLE!!!
WRONG!!! Brokers are not screwing anyone because they are not forcing anyone to haul their freight. It’s being hauled because someone chose to.
Freight brokers are used car salesmen.
Wtf ever – comparing a freight broker to a used car salesman is too kind…freight brokers are worse than any salesman. They need to crawl back under the rock they came out from under!
A freight broker’s only job is to sell you on booking their load. He/she knows they will NEVER have to deal with you again, so, they will tell you ANYTHING to get you on their load. Once you are on it, then the roller coaster of fun begins. I cannot count the number of times I have been flat out lied to about what the load is, when it will be ready, if their is detention pay, etc…most brokers just doesn’t care about the details. Most of them are NOT from this country…where they come from, they are accustom to lying and cheating each other, as are many of the foreigner drivers on the road, so, to them, this is “business as usual”. Where they come from, if you aren’t lying or cheating someone, then you are leaving money on the table.
They aren’t all like this, but enough of them are pure evil that, it makes it hard to distinguish them from the good ones. Me, I hear a thick accent, I typically don’t take the load.
In the beginning, I used to make threats that I was going to deadhead, show up in front of their office during business hours and discuss this
“face to face”…I was a lot younger when I first started, and, ya, it lead to me getting “black listed” from time to time but, I got what I was promissed.
More recently, load boards have attempted to give us a voice, a tool to report & monitor the scum, call them out, but, ever try to post a negative review about a broker? They will have you jump through so many hoops, it isn’t worth the effort. And, even when you do, that doesn’t cause the load board to stop accepting their loads…no, that would cause the board to look bad because it doesn’t have a million loads on it.
The solution is to get rid of all load brokers.
There should be a “clearing house” of information about our truck, where we are going, when we will be empty, and customers needing loads moved in the area can access that, book the load directly, saving them money and eliminating middle men thus being able to pay a higher rate to owner ops.
I agree I can give numerous accounts how the brokers screwed me, but I don’t have time because I have to work extra hard so the brokers can still break even, since there is less freight to move.
Yep!!! Brokers are the problem!! Do very little and screw drivers!! But somebody wants them around. I wonder who?? Why can we never get these obvious questions answered???
WRONG AGAIN! YOU are the problem if you are hauling their freight and not hauling your own freight!
Amen
Say no to cheap freight! the small carriers can get it there on time better than a mega carrier. oo’s need to look for the small nitches, stay away from the huge warehouses that the mega carriers go to. I started with one truck and built it to 15 doing this. I survived 9/11 and 2008 and 2009. It can be done stick together and find the freight they have to move
Ideas Rob: look for companies (producers) that only deal with single products. Also, independent farmers tend to deal fairly with independent truckers (but usually need a reefer). Bob’s Red Mill will buy indie truckloads of grains.
You are right
I don’t do grocery warehouses and big stuff ,I do the freight no one wants to move, but it pays good,I stay where I want to go,and not all is,heavy
There we go finally somebody with some brains and brass ones to match!!!
I like the idea of smaller carriers packing it in. I can make more on unemployment anyway. Bring on the gravy train.
yea not everybody could or should try to handle the hard times. ENJOY!
Yeah get in line
The President needs to look at price gouging from brokers. The truckers are always getting screwed by the brokers.
Supply and demand. That’s the way it’s always been. More trucks than freight the rates drop. More freight than trucks to haul it rates rise. Simple.
Excellent! Someone else in here with some brains!!!
What’s the unemployment going to do for you ,your just looking for a hand out, the other driver is correct the brokers are stealing all the money why do we need brokers, creates jobs with in hire people to coordinate the loads ,even in this hard times the brokers are keeping it all, TQL, CHOPTANK, CH ROBINSON, nothing but thieths , we do the work and they make the money.
Cesar, you nailed the big three! Found out that CH R is buying into small Trucking companies too. They call it “re-investing” in their industry. Looks more like a total takeover attemp… or double-dipping at the least.
I dont use tql any more, they suck ch rip me off no thank u and choptank used them once or twice
Choptank is the WORST! They will rip you off quicker than any other broker. Most of what they offer is garbage. I pulled some of their loads, never again. Clueless bunch of morons.
Thanks for the heads up. We need more of that information. TQL can go f themselves. I heard a lot of bad things about them. I only dealt with them once. I caught em off guard. I tried to do business with them, but never did yet. I won’t move freight for free.
I was “blacklisted” years ago by TQL for calling out one of their scum bag brokers who booked me on a load, said it was “ready”, when I showed up, it had been “accidentally” assigned to someone else and the broker refused to pay a TONU.
The conversation got heated (and not by me)…I was told I was just another “dime a dozen” owner op. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told “I am the supervisor”….no, fool, I want YOUR supervisor…unless you’re initials are TQL I don’t think you are calling the shots! I don’t recall the exact conversation, but I believe it ended along the lines of me asking for the name and number of their general counsel so my attorney could “discuss” matters more civilly with theirs. When I found out I was blacklisted, I asked why…”You threatened to Sue us…we recorded the conversation.” Really? I said “Go listen again, I never threatened anything, I simply asked for who to contact!”
But, it’s their ball, their court, and their rules, we just have to decide if we’re playing or not.
To be honest, I hated working with TQL, some of the dumbest brokers on the planet, if you don’t have a load # for them, they can’t find the load. What is that all about? They can’t look it up by origin and destination? I would tell them the load number was too long for me to memorize, I looked the load up on my phone and I can’t switch over to see it while I am talking to you.
In all the years since, I never missed not taking their garbage.
The best and smartest brokers I USED to work with long ago would call me consistently throughout the week, they knew where I was at, where I was heading (often times it was because I was already working on one of their loads), they knew where I liked to go and what a DECENT rate was! I didn’t have to stop the truck and look stuff up, fill out paperwork, get proof of insurance, authority, W-9 etc over to yet another company…they would keep me moving around the country, day in and day out. I never had to go hunting for a load, just field a phone call, hear what they had to say, if I liked it, I booked it, if I didn’t, they’d go look for something else for me. I worked with the same group over and over. I didn’t have to beat them up on price. Never had an issue with a load, or, if we did, it didn’t become a PROBLEM.
But, those days are LONG gone.
The best group to work with these days is Uber Freight. Info about the loads, feedback from other drivers, other available nearby loads once you are done, prices, all there in one spot on every load. You don’t even have to talk to anyone or create an invoice, just book the load, upload your bills through their app. They have dry van, reefer and now, flatbed loads. Detention is paid after 2 hrs with no hassle, just inform them when you are going into it, they send you a form, you fill it out, no questions. Loads are paid fast…money in the bank in 2-3 days and, I don’t believe they charge anything extra for quickpay, or, if they do, it is nominal. They don’t pay as much as they used to on detention, it used to be $75 hr, often, I didn’t mind sitting around for 4 or 5 hours getting paid, I was probably planning on spending the night anyway! But, like all good things, they dropped the detention rate recently, and now I think it is something paltry like $40 hr.
Typical for trucking, nothing good ever lasts.
Yes I think it’s terrible how they play games with this money I’m a solo truck company I have my own authority and one truck and I’m the driver I’ve been doing grocery runs since this Corona 19 started if we don’t run these loans this country will shut down we should have protective gear to keep us safe why don’t they make it when we get gloves and masks and shields and I do need to get rid of these brokers they take all the money out of them all
most employees are on their own. go online and order the stuff or make the masks right there in your truck. or you can order face masks with filters that are helpful. better to have something on your face than nothing. think outside the box.
WHY in the name of GOD would you be hauling freight for a broker if you have your own authority?
Tea Girl, you are like me, a dying breed. Best of luck to you, stay strong and healthy!
I would like to see more transparency in broker freight rates. Some brokers are taking as much as 50% of the rate. That is unacceptable. It is wrong. Perhaps the paradigm should change with brokers being compensated like manufacturer’s representatives. Brokers would represent one or more carrier’s and carrier’s would pay brokers and agreed upon fee or commission instead of brokers controlling what the carrier receives. It would eliminate the need for a broker Bond since the shipper would pay the carrier who would then pay the broker. Under this type of relationship, carrier’s would not need to be as concerned about being paid from brokers.
Michael Goodman…brokers will say they need to make big money on some loads to make up for the ones they make nothing on. I agree that 50% is way too much for a broker. 20% is even too much for the little bit of work they do. But, where do we draw the line? And, whose gonna enforce this without asking big brother to step in, and, you know, once they get their fingers into it, they take a messy pile of turds and turn it into a much bigger and messier pile.
It’s 50/50 Brokers want to own all of your trailer, pay you for 10 ft of it and tell you can’t load the 30 plus that’s empty to make money.
Now is the time to park them!!!!
That’s what I did. Need more to do the same. They need us more. This is the perfect time to get what we need as truckers
Exactly we should have been included in the stimulus bill because if we go down so does the country.Plus even if they raise the freight rates we will not benefit from it because the big companies are not going to pay.us more.Think about it no one is providing us with people or giving us hazzard pay but they expect us to continue working I don’t owe America my life ,look at how they treat their military after wars .Forget that unless we strike now and get what we want and need ,more respect.
what? no one else is getting any special attention. hazard pay you sit in the truck while the loader unloads. hes the one who needs hazard pay.
I did that myself. I’ll keep an eye on rates, but won’t hold my breath.
It boils down to the megacarriers they haul it cheap n a lot of it same old song n dance that’s why it’s cheap 5 trucks or less can’t compete with 500 trucks with drivers out of driving school that all they can do is hold a steering wheel old school truckers r few n far between but u will b that til the day I die b safe everyone
We we should all just say no to a brokers when they try low ball us on money that’s what my company doing and trust me they pay i don’t want my drivers to get f
.. sick they had to pay they’d don’t pay we don’t hall simple and far as shiper and reciver they have to start respecting driver
you are absolutely correct but we need to strike like amazon
Amazon is not on strike the that tried to start that crap was fired.
They are called brokers cause they make you broker.
Everyone knows, brokers take the apples out of the pie. The rest get the dried crust. Bo
That have to be wrong, Florida never been moderately above ever, their freights has always been the cheapest in the market
I hope everyone finds the FTR Heatmap helpful. To clarify, the FTR heatmap is looking at what a “normal” rate should have been in any one state and then comparing that current rate to what we would normally have expected. Thus, please do not compare one state to the other.
As an example, if you think about it in the same way we view the outside temperature. The temperature is going to be different across the US depending upon location at any point in time. However, we typically know what the outside temperature should be for this time of year. If we see a heatwave across the country it is helpful to know how different the temperature is from what we normally expect. This is exactly what the FTR heatmap is doing, but looking at it from a rate perspective. We will be publishing loadings data soon and that should help better explain some of the disconnect in rates and pricing by state.
No hazardous pay for Covid 19; now is the time to park these rigs. They need us more than ever. Tired of being used by this industry and do anything truck drivers
Hi flip burgers mega carriers don’t care, more freight for them !! Just saying!!!
I wouldn’t be complaining if I were the trucking companies, they’re still making a lot of money during this crisis, but they’re still not giving truckers the respect or $ we deserve. We’re putting our lives on the line while they benefit in their safe and secure bunkers.
The greed in this industry is inexcusable!
WELL SAID 🇺🇸
you are absolutely correct but we need to strike like amazon
All of these complaints won’t change anything– because nobody is willing to organize! Most truck drivers in the US are so scared or misinformed about unionization that there’s no hope for change. Except for the drivers at the very few companies with aTeamster contract, everyone else is on the menu for the big brokers and shippers. And that includes the “independents”. It’s sad.
Guess you didn’t notice: unions are being phased out!!! Now UPS is starting to “use” outside contractors like Fed-Ex!!! Once they have enough outside help they’re gonna force their employees union out!!! I’m gonna work for anybody else but UPS!!! So wrong what drivers have to endure!!! Essential workers winding up sick and on food stamps after the job wears you down!!!
Get government out of the trucking industry.
I’m crying in my beer . You poor little truck drivers. Suck it up and drive
Big Bob take the,donny dick you deserve it
I’m not a trucker, though I tried to be. However, I’m glad that people are realizing what they do for us.Probably no one waves at truckers anymore, so I thought I’d write my appreciation.
Thanks, guy!!!
Charles Bevell, thanks for your honesty, and, your more trucker than a lot of them that think they are. I actually saw someone give a trucker a break yesterday. When this virus blows away, you’ll see people going back to treating truckers like crap.
Deregulation created this ride. Brokers, brokers, brokers.
All of these complaints won’t change anything– because nobody is willing to organize! Most truck drivers in the US are so scared or misinformed about unions that there’s no hope for change. Except for the drivers at the very few companies with a Teamster contract, everyone else is on the menu for the big brokers and shippers. And that includes the “independents”. It’s sad.
A strike today is the worst thing you can do. It will erase every good thing the public thinks of truckers and it will never be recovered in our life time. Now is when we need to get the job done. If the inconveniences are too hard for you it is time for YOU to leave. This country needs truckers as long as we can do this job. We to move everything needed and are depended upon to get this country thru this pandemic. It is not just the Drs and nurses .
Really well I won’t strike I’ll just retire myself, the truck and the trailer. I’ve been at this 13 years all but bit over a year as O/O.
I own a reefer and haul ltl food east. My regular freight going east is non existent past two weeks. I worked off the bs load boards this week and just about broke even. Ended up working 37 hours while sitting an additional 20 on top of my 10s since Monday. That’s how weird it’s getting.
I’m in business to make profit on top of what I get paid as an employee of my company. If not it’s time to move on and create opportunity elsewhere.
I respectfully DISAGREE!! If you’re falling off a cliff and someone is reaching out to you, do you keep falling for fear of dragging that person with you???
NOTHING gets done without trucks!!! Everybody would be walking around naked like cave dwellers!!! LOL
An o/o needs to make x amount of money per mile or go out of business. It’s a business thing and I’m not out here to make friends, but money. If the money isn’t there, neither am I. We have to worry about ourselves, cause low rates catch up faster than you think. Now taking cheap loads will run you out of business, therefore you can’t work anyhow, plus you are broke. Don’t worry about what the public thinks. They’ll forget about you soon after the chaos settles down.
I am sitting in PA because I refuse to haul anything for less than my minimum per mile. Will not haul relief products for a dollar a mile. My family needs the items like all of America but I will not go broke doing it. I am a for profit business and need to pay my bills. Warehouses that take 6,8,10 hours to load and then 6,8,10 to unload with 20 dollar an hour detention after 3 hours is bull poop. My time is worth 50 an hours for driver and equipment. Pay me my worth or thank you I will sit.
I AGREE!!!
Problem is you can’t pay your bills sitting on your rear doing nothing.
You cant pay your bills losing money paying to haul cheap freight. There is a bottom line and some peoples are lower tgan others. Thats capatalism
What a wild ride these days.
35 years of complaining.
Park my truck several times through the years. Work local.
When I found contracts that paid I started back up.
We all have limits. From day one if you do not save 50 cents on a dollar.
Step away do not let that road blow your mind.
We are all humans that care. We all need to be strong enough not to sink with a ship.
Again and again a lot of bla, bla, bla!.. This army of drivers is nothing but a bunch of chickens, ball-less. Shut the business down!..I been saying this for the last 18 months. We hold the long stick not them!. The price per mile has to be $3,50 and up. Drivers need to be paid $0.80 to $1.20 a mile according to experience. Consumers have to pay the price! That’s it!..nobody will need to drive more than 2300 miles a week and owners and carries will make good money.
In regards to Jack, that sounds all well and good except for one thing… economy is all relative. Once the trucks start to earn more profit everything related to operating that truck will follow suit. You may start to earn more per mile but soon you will be spending much more just to drive that mile. Also, every commodity in the stores that you and yours use on a personal level will go up in price simply because you charge more to deliver the raw materials and the finished products. It’s just the nature of the beast. Costs are all relative. Might as well just accept it. Supply and demand is what controls costs.
And, finally someone with common sense chimes in.
Be self reliant
Be responsible for you dont sit and wait for someone else to get it done.
Be self reliant
Be responsible for you and get yourself tested , dont sit and wait for someone else to get it done. As far as food meals on wheels and uber eats or door dash.
Yup
Until they start testing this thing will never end.
I’m just a over the road driver, been waiting 10 days here in Fontana, Ca to get a load, broker told the owner and me rates out of Southern California, on the second week of April 2020 due to COVID- -19 are as low as 95 cents a mile. That is not enough to cover fuel and driver cost, not including all other expenses. Ridiculous and just to think that some owner operators will take those cheap loads…….
Brokers like coyote are posting loads at .80 a mile when the 15-day avg spot is over 2.00 a mile. Multi-Brokers are posting the same load all fishing for a carrier who is stuck in area. It’s BS to think all of the sudden shippers want rates cut 50% or they won’t ship the product. 75% of the time when you do get a load when the rate/con is emailed to you it’s from a different broker. This should be against the law like it is for us carriers.