As has been the case for a while, another month brought another batch of record data, according to the most recent edition of the DAT Truckload Volume Index (TVI), which was issued last week by DAT Freight & Analytics.
The DAT Truckload Volume Index (TVI) reflects the change in the number of loads with a pickup date during that month, with the actual index number normalized each month to accommodate any new data sources without distortion, with a baseline of 100 equal to the number of loads moved in January 2015. It measures dry van, refrigerated (reefer), and flatbed trucks moved by truckload carriers.
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’s data found the following takeaways for truckload volumes, load-to-truck ratios, and rates in August:
DAT Freight & Analytics Chief of Analytics Ken Adamo said in an interview that August is typically one of those rebound months following a huge fourth of July push.
“Things after that and into the first half of August are generally slower, from a seasonality perspective,” he said. “When you look at what happened in August and what is happening in September, there is this sort of pressure release valves that exist all throughout the supply chain that take that pressure off. The reason why it slows down after the fourth of July is you start to see a lot of that ocean traffic come in and building considerably ahead the retail peak.”
What’s more, in a typical year, when ocean freight comes into U.S. ports, it gets moved to a warehouse or a store and is a relatively quiet occurrence, explained Adamo.
But things are much different on that front now, in that records are being set daily and weekly, for vessels at anchor and port throughput, which Adamo said leads to downstream implications, as there are many containers on these vessels, which need to move to their final destinations.
“We have not seen any relief, and it is only continuing to build,” he said.
Over the last several months, Adamo noted that DAT’s monthly TVI has been on a linear trend of breaking records without any types of random spikes.
“We really are in unchartered territory right now,” he said. “We have been bumping around this $2.75 per mile level for really all of 2021, and we saw that from the Polar Vortex. For those industry stakeholders with lots of exposure to truckload, there has been a question of ‘will we test that as we go through Peak Season?’ Support levels very much exist, as trucking is a very transactional market, and that is what we see here. And then it is a question of if things break through from here?”
With the market seeing ongoing levels of high volumes and rates, Adamo said that pressure—as it relates to Peak Season—will still exist.
“It is just a fact,” he said. “More stuff is going to need to move. There is going to be extremely strong consumer demand seasonally. Those pressures are going to exist into Peak. Whether or not we are at an all-time rate high heading into it makes no difference.”