After a flat month in February, the truckload market experienced rate increases of 5.75% throughout March.  While we may not experience the same 5.% + increase this month, we have certainly seen things get off to a strong start in April.  According to Transcore’s Freight Talk Blog, “Los Angeles van rates have seen an increase of 4.2% over the last week, but no market has gained as steadily as Atlanta, with a 10.4% difference vs. the previous month.” 

They also noted that lanes such as Atlanta up to the North East rose as much as 16%.  While we are not quite sure what is behind the spike in rates out of California, we do feel that produce season has began kicking into gear which is the main driver behind the rate increases that we have seen so far this month out of the South East.

Currently there are over 10 van loads posted per truck and 23 loads per truck for reefer freight posted in parts of Georgia, which is drastically up from the month before.  While this is resulting in a significant increase in outbound rates from these Southeastern markets, we are seeing rates drop drastically on shipments into these regions.  We saw our pricing out of the North East into the Atlanta market drop by over 10% in the first week of April and saw our pricing into Florida decrease by 15%.  As the month progresses, Open Mile will continue to keep an eye on market trends throughout the country.  We expect markets in the Southeastern, South Western, and Western regions to have the most significant increases as produce freight volume continues to increase.

After a relatively flat February and early March, Transcore‘s Freight Talk Blog has pointed out some recent increases in truckload rates throughout different points within the United States.  According to Transcore, “van rates rose by another 1.7% in the past week, for a two week increase of 2.5%”.  The markets that noticed the largest increases week over week were out of Chicago and Columbus, both experiencing rate increases of over 3%.  The rate increases within this market appear to be based on a significant increase in volume being shipped out of these cities, presumably due to shippers attempting to move as much as they can before the quarter ends next week.  In Columbus this resulted in Load to Truck ratio’s out of these states increasing to over 4.5 loads per vs less than 3 loads per truck last week.

One of the more interesting states they called out was, that of the 64 highest volume lanes, 41 experienced rate increases.  The lane that demonstrated the largest fluctuation was one that Open Mile moves daily, Philadelphia to Boston. This origin / destination combo experienced rate increases of “13 cents / 5.4%” according to Transcore.  While Transcore reported an uptick in pricing, Open Mile actually saw pricing within this market remain flat, presumably due to our extensive carrier network within the North East Region.

Open Mile will continue to keep an eye on how rates trend through next week as we approach the end of the First Quarter and reach the start of produce season where we are expecting rates to skyrocket out of the South East.