Diesel pours more fuel on the trucking fire.
The SONAR chart is showing the dynamics between retail fuel (blue), wholesale or rack fuel (orange), spot truckload rates (green), and contract truckload rates (purple).
Let’s break them down one at a time, shall we?
Fuel:
The fact that ULSDR (orange) fuel is rising and closing the gap with DOE (blue) means that the enterprise fleets are getting squeezed on their fuel tables. Enterprise fleets typically buy at wholesale or ULSDR +/- and set fuel surcharge tables on retail or DOE prices. A tightening in the spread between the two squeezes dollars from their bottom lines.
Truckload rates:
Spot rates in green are continuing to drop as contract rates come down off their latest bounce. Remember when we talked about the dangers of those two crossing. Well, it is still coming but let me leave you with one final thought…
Spot rates in green have fuel included. Contract does not. So….
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