Truckload Rates

Are you guys still seeing pretty high rates out there? It was brutal most of the week, but it feels like today it might be starting to cool off a little, but that might be wishful thinking. What are you guys seeing?

 

We are actually paying higher on some lanes right now than we were this time in 2018. The outbound tender volume across the country is actually way higher right now (see below). Although it does appear to be dropping a bit now.

 

For us we are running at lower margin% on contracted freight just about anywhere in the country, but specifically it is still really difficult out of TX, GA, and strangely enough Chicago is pretty hot right now (usually it is somewhat dead in the summer). We currently run 1100-1200 TLs a week though, so it is sometimes hard to pin down where rates have genuinely gone up, and where it is just circumstantial (we got crappy appointments on a load that drive up the cost, customer gave us the load at the 11th hour so we didn't have a chance to work with our regular carrier, etc).

I both agree and disagree with you on freightwaves. I do agree that often times when freightwaves tells me xzy market is tough my general response tends to be "No S*&T freightwaves, I can tell that by looking at the number of calls required to book a load and the fact that my cost to the truck has gone up 15%".

Where I find it most useful for my group is that I can share the data with a customer that I need to raise rates on. I used to share DAT trend lines with customers when I needed to visually show that the market had adjusted upward, but customers would often focus on the $ amount instead of the trend line. I like that FW shows tender volume and rejections.

One additional use that I like is that it helps me confirm whether or not WE are just struggling out of a particular region, or if it is industry wide.

And brief update on the market, from where I sit it still seems realllllllly tough this week.