One can only grumble at this point about the continued slide in rates for dry van and refrigerated freight. Looking at the weekly reports in FreightWaves SONAR from Truckstop.com (inclusive of fuel), both categories have slipped since last week. At least the decreases were small ones… Dry van (TSTOPVRPM.USA) slid by just a penny to $2.90, while the cool dudes in refrigerated (TSTOPRRPM.USA) lost two cents to $3.16.
The guys with the big rates, the flatbedders (TSTOPFRPM.USA) regained their losses from last week and even made a penny, hitting $3.94. I added something to the graph this week, and yeah, it makes me cringe. The Diesel Truckstop Actual Price Per Gallon (DTS.USA), went up $0.08 from last Sunday to hit $5.68 per gallon as of June 6. With PADD storage reaching record low levels – especially PADD 2 in the Midwest – shortage woes will keep the price of fuel high.
Even the FreightWaves National Truckload Index, Business Day Linehaul (NTIBL.USA), which is a pure rate without fuel, is basically flat over last week. With only $0.02 gain from last week, not much else can be said other than to hold to your disciplines and not do any outlandish spending until the capacity tightens and rates rise from the demand for drivers. And the $0.86 spread between the linehaul and full rate means fuel surcharge will still be a topic of discussion between carriers and shippers.
Freight bounces back after Memorial Day weekend break
On the SONAR Outbound Tender Volume Index/Outbound Tender Rejection Index chart (OTVI.USA and OTRI.USA), you can see the dips in both indices from Memorial Day weekend and the recovery so far. OTVI is the freight moving from distribution centers to final customers. OTRI is the rejection rate due to unavailable capacity, or in recent times, rates being too low. OTVI dropped from 12886 on Sunday, May 29, down to 10931 the next day. The Index then rose over the week to13331 as of June 6.
The OTRI also saw a small dip, but I’m sure there was plenty of charcoal to be hauled. OTRI dropped from 8.9% on Friday May 29, to 8.58% June 1. It then recovered to 8.75% as of June 6. One can only hope that gains will continue as the supply chain speeds up going into the post July 4th holiday freight season
