Spot Market

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 new offering, entitled Market Rate IQ, was created by the company’ technology incubator, C.H. Robinson Labs, and company officials said that it is the only tool that highlights to shippers which factors in their United States spot pricing are market-driven and which ones are outside of their control. What’s more, it explained that it is the lone tool incorporating DAT’s RateView, a database comprised of U.S. spot freight lanes.

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 reported that the number of available loads on the spot truckload freight market increased 0.3%, and the number of available trucks, for the week, was off 1.2% on a sequential basis. The firm explained that while spot market truckload rates usually see a seasonal dip following the July 4 holiday, that was not the case this year, with rates remaining high throughout the month.

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.

It’s important to take note of the rapid adaptation by ocean carriers to the elastic demand in international freight in 2020. The owners and operators went from famine to feast in a few months.

Portland, Ore.-based DAT Freight & analytics, an online marketplace for spot market truckload freight, and Chicago-based FourKites, a provider of real-time tracking and visibility solutions across transportation modes and digital platforms, recently heralded a strategic partnership focused on bringing FourKite’s real-time, end-to-end supply chain visibility into DAT’s network.

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 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

DAT noted that the week of February 21 was the busiest week ever for load postings on the DAT network, with the total number of available loads exceeding 10 million and was 42% higher than the previous record set in June 2018 and 174% higher compared to the same period last year. A DAT spokesman told LM that, for perspective, the DAT network had 226 million loads posted last year, meaning that the activity from the week of February 21 represented almost 5% of last year’s traffic...

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 decreased 2.0% from December to January and was up 7.5% annually.

While the truckload spot market finished 2020 from a position of strength, in that it hit various highs, DAT Freight and Analytics recently pointed out that spot rates have subsequently fallen 10% since the end of the year and are pegged to head down another 8%-to-10% in the coming weeks.

The firm reported that spot truckload freight postings, for the week ending December 13, fell 15%, and trucks available on the spot market rose 13%, which it said serves as an indication that spot truckload capacity is loosening up in advance of Christmas.

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.