This week’s Freight Talk “Trend of the Week” focused on the fact that rates continued to decline seasonally in national markets throughout the US, such as Chicago, Los Angeles, Memphis, and Philadelphia.  Throughout the month of January Open Mile has noticed extremely soft market conditions throughout the US, but especially in areas you may not expect like Chicago, Columbus, Memphis, and Saint Louis all demonstrating “load to truck ratio’s” of less than 1.5 loads per truck.  While freight volumes typically drop in January and throughout the 1st Quarter, we have been surprised to see some of the major markets as affected as they have been.  For example, In Chicago carriers are really fighting over freight right now and we are seeing some of the lowest prices we’ve seen in the past 18 months.  Rates from Metro Chicago to the North East and New England regions dropped on average by 12% last week at Open Mile, while rates from the East Coast back to Chicago remained stable.  This is clearly a sign that volumes have dropped out of this major market and the carriers based there are simply trying to keep their trucks moving and drivers happy.

With all of that said, we are continuing to see market fluctuations throughout the country and on the “drop of a dime” conditions could flip drastically.  I have already noticed this week Load to Truck ratio’s rising from Monday to Wednesday in Major Markets such as Memphis and Cincinnati which potentially is a sign that things are starting to heat up.  Additionally, bad weather or the lack of it, has allowed capacity to remain somewhat stable without any “acts of God” taking place temporarily displacing it, resulting in rate increases.  We’ll continue to report on capacity trends throughout the US over the next few months, to determine what if any capacity/price shifts will happen in 2012.