Commence operation vacu-suck!
That is the battle cry of the enterprise fleets as freight market volumes jump prior to the 4th of July and the end of Q2.
A curious event has happened in rejections (or the tightening of capacity) leading up to the holiday. Rejections dropped!
More importantly, a disturbing trend can be extracted from this and other market trends.
The SONAR chart below would/should show both outbound tender volumes and rejections bumping up prior to a holiday and end of quarter.
But, they didn’t and aren’t.
Rejections have dropped. Capacity has loosened?
The indication here is that the contract carriers have plenty of capacity to handle the 4th of July.
For example, the SONAR chart above shows the increase in contract load acceptance compared to tender lead times. Normally tender lead times will increase prior to the 4th of July. Not only are lead times not increasing, they are actually falling rather quickly.
This indicates that not only do contract fleets have capacity, they are accepting every load they can – and quickly – to secure the business.
Finally, throwing fuel on the fire is, well, fuel. This final SONAR chart compares retail diesel in blue to wholesale prices in pink.
The widening gap between the two indicates a pure driver of money to the bottom line for the enterprise fleets with fuel surcharge tables.
There are loads of freight and money, but in this market it is difficult to get yours as a small fleet or single operator.
Notice anything similar in each graph? The widening gaps between these compared data sets all point to trouble for small fleets and owner-operators.
Stay informed!
Peace and love.
