DAT Truckload Volume Index

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.

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 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.

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.

Coming off of March, which was the highest monthly output ever, April was the second-highest, even with the sequential decline, coming in at 225, a 5% decline compared to March. And the April TVI was up 39% compared to April 2020 and was up 26% compared to April 2019.

The DAT Truckload Volume Index 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. Overall, the index headed up 31%, from February to March. This marked its highest level going back to when...

The February van load-to-truck ratio, at 7.5, was up from January’s 4.3, setting a new record, with the reefer ratio, at 15.9, also set a new record, and coming in ahead of January’s 8.2 ratio, with the flatbed ratio going from 47.9 in January to 62.2 in February

The September edition of the DAT Truckload Volume Index, which was issued this week by DAT Freight & analytics, an online marketplace for spot market truckload freight, picked up where August left off, posting all-time highs for spot market rates for van and refrigerated, or reefer, truckload freight.

Rates based on rolling averages, through September 27, came in at: $2.37 per mile for van, unchanged on a weekly basis (and is up 14 cents compared to the national contract rate); flatbed rose 1 cent, to $2.40 per mile; and refrigerated was unchanged, at $2.57 per mile.

The August edition of the DAT Truckload Volume Index, which was issued this week by DAT Freight & Analytics, a subsidiary of Roper Technologies and operator of an online marketplace for spot market truckload freight, highlighted how spot market truckload rates approached all-time highs in August, with various trucking segments seeing rate and load-to-truck ratio gains.