Loadsmart’s Carrier Sales Manager, Jimmy Fahey, breaks down what happened last week and what to expect this week in the freight market for less than 60 seconds.

This is a weekly series that brings the insights we use to get your shipments from A to B from our carrier sales floor to your home office.

What we saw last week

• We had a slight reprieve early in the week, as volumes dipped about 20% as shippers pulled shipments forward before the long weekend; however, the market jumped back in the latter half of last week as volumes rose to 13740.38 and OTRI came back to 26.56.
• Friday ended the 72 hour CVSA safety blitz, which focused on driver requirements. Nearly 9,000 inspectors throughout North America conducted inspections and roughly 17 commercial vehicles were inspected every minute. Historically, the blitz had caused capacity to tighten as drivers stayed off the road. In year’s past, 1179 were placed OOS due to HOS violations, which was 37.2% of of the 3,173 drivers placed OOS last year.
• The National Retail Federation reported container imports in August are expected to be higher than originally forecasted, up 4.6% YoY vs. previous estimates of 3.6%. August’s estimates of 2.06M TEUs, marks the highest level of monthly imports since 2006. This has caused analysts to raise estimates for the remaining peak season months from August to Oct.
• Truckstop’s Market Demand Index hit an all time high of 102 (implying there are 102 available loads for every truck), which eclipses the 2018 peak of 78. As we move into peak retail season, anticipate that number to continue to rise.

What to look out for this week

• This week IS National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, which took a more prominent role this year, considering the crucial role drivers have played in the pandemic. Hope everyone remembers to honor all drivers.
• With the OVTI being a seven day moving average, the index is distorted for the week following a national holiday, such as Labor Day. As such, weekly comparisons are near meaningless. Coming of the post holiday and CVSA, anticipate OTVI and OTRI to spike back up back towards pre-Labor day
• Senate Democrats scuttled a scaled-back GOP coronavirus rescue package of $650 billion last Thursday, likely ending hope for relief before the November elections.

Stay Up to Date

With all the latest weekly and monthly market insights on our Youtube page. Questions about anything you saw? Email sales@loadsmart.com and let’s talk about how we can help you take advantage of real-time market conditions.

With the dramatic market swings of 2020, it’s no surprise that shippers have recently seen +25% tender rejections from their primary carriers.

Because shippers’ routing guides mostly reflect a market’s past, the static rates within them become less dependable as they age and as the market changes.

The freight market is evolving, and shippers must adapt their routing to be dynamic, adaptable, and prepared to weather any market.

You’ll learn:

• What to do when your routing guide falls apart
• How to prepare for and thrive in any market
• How to automate greater efficiency and less expense in freight moves

On Demand Webinar:

Loadsmart’s Director of Carrier Sales, Jordamn Abrams, breaks down what happened last week and what to expect this week in the freight market for less than 60 seconds.

This is a weekly series that brings the insights we use to get your shipments from A to B from our carrier sales floor to your home office.

What we saw last week

• Really? Much of the same – Tender Volumes continue to increase and reaching 56% greater levels than last year.
• Rejections are at 26% lead the way with RFR rejections sitting just under 39%
• RFR freight is tight across the nation 
• Tropical storm Laura had less of an impact to the freight market as expect. Although S LA did take on major damage with other markets taking on flooding and road closures.

What to look out for this week

• Labor Day week is here. Expect a whole weeks worth of freight to ship in four days along with this years DOT Road check week. We call this a Double whammy! Expect capacity to tighten and rates to increase.
• The major markets will be tight especially southern call, ATL, eastern PA and Houston.
• Don’t take your eye off the weather forecast caused Hurricane season continues through November. Retail season soon follow  so don’t expect capacity to loosen anytime soon!

Stay Up to Date

With all the latest weekly and monthly market insights on our Youtube page. Questions about anything you saw? Email sales@loadsmart.com and let’s talk about how we can help you take advantage of real-time market conditions.

Loadsmart’s Carrier Sales Manager, Jimmy Fahey, breaks down what happened last week and what to expect this week in the freight market for less than 60 seconds.

This is a weekly series that brings the insights we use to get your shipments from A to B from our carrier sales floor to your home office.

What we saw last week

Hurricane Laura made landfall last week over parts of eastern Texas and Louisiana. The storm was a category 4, but was downgraded to Category 1 when it made landfall. The storm brought high winds and heavy rains, which headed through much of the Mississippi Valley over the weekend. The storms forced shutdowns in many of the Gulf Coast ports, which extended into Monday, and caused disruptions in the oil and natural gas refining systems, which could reverberate through the coming weeks and affect the industrial sector.

The SoCal headhual index dropped last week by 61% as outbound volumes dropped over a couple of days; however, ocean volumes are still up year over year, which so capacity will likely remain tight for the foreseeable future.

Import volumes last week rose almost 50% higher than 2019 levels into the ports of LA and Long Beach, which has pushed OTR tender volumes out of LA up 73% year over year. Capacity will remain tight however, even if we are past our peak, especially as we head into peak retail season. 

What to look out for this week

Union Pacific announced a $500 surcharge on all excess contract cargo in Seattle starting Sept. 6th in an effort to shift as much available 53 foot intermodal equipment into the Southern California markets. 

We will continue to be on the lookout for the effects of Hurricane Laura, which could take months of clean-up and rebuilding, but also it’s effects inland, as there is potential for severe winds, tornadoes, and flash flooding inland. 

Looking into the week, expect capacity to tighten over the week due to inclement weather, the end of month push, and the upcoming Labor Day weekend, which typically tightens capacity. Furthermore, brokers, carriers and shippers, should begin setting expectations for the upcoming CVSA Internal Roadcheck, which will start Sept. 9 thru the 11. We will dive deeper into this next week on our market update.

Stay Up to Date

With all the latest weekly and monthly market insights on our Youtube page. Questions about anything you saw? Email sales@loadsmart.com and let’s talk about how we can help you take advantage of real-time market conditions.

Welcome to August’s Episode of Loadsmart First Look. This is a monthly series that dives into the domestic freight market, the economy as a backdrop to the trucking industry, and the latest developments and technologies that are changing the supply chain.

This month, with an increasingly confounding market, our VP of Operations, Jim Nicholson, brought in a little help from Supply Chain Expert Mark Montague:

What’s going on in the market?

Jim: It’s been an absolutely fascinating year to study the freight markets. I’m curious to see what you’re seeing and trends and data points you’re looking at.

Mark: When you think about supply chain disruption or changes, 2017 comes to mind, which culminated in the ELD mandate and then elevated rates throughout 2018. There was quite a run up rate in [2018]. Recently, I pulled the data to look and see – how does this compare and this is actually a much sharper change in the freight marketplace. For one thing, we started from the lowest spot that I’ve seen in really the last century as far as freight rates and now we’ve climbed to some rates that are in some cases comparable to those 2018 rate levels.

Jim: This is a little but different, right? With the COVID pandemic there’s quite a bit more uncertainty and more volatility of the ups and downs. What are some changes you think might be contributing to what we saw in 2017 vs. what we see right now?

Mark: We had the economy totally shut down for about six week – so for most of April. March ended up strong because of all the rush to go to the grocery stores and get supplies even as food service was shutting down. And you had other industries, auto makers, a lot manufacturers shut down for the month of April and really for the first part of May.

And that was really the nadir, the lowest point was mid to late May when a lot of stuff had ground to a halt and we started to see some freight start to come back. Produce season kicked in in May so for refrigerated freight April was really the low point. 

But flatbed and van really hit their lowest rates in the month of May. I actually captured a RateView file front that month, RateView being the DAT product that tracks freight rates, and I took that 30 day sample versus a 30 day sample from around today, it was an amazing result: rates are up 47% for the linehaul portion of the van haul rate in really a 2.5 month time frame. One of the things I also looked at – well what happened with volumes? Well volumes are 15.5%, so it’s a real increase.

As far as what’s driving it, that’s been a big question on a lot of analyst minds. I get to talk to some analysts on a fairly regular basis and it partly is the spot market benefits whenever there’s disruption. That probably gets into another question that you have.

Read More »

We’re in the business of connecting the logistics industry, but that doesn’t stop at connecting shipments with carriers. This is our second episode of On the Road with Loadsmart, a platform to connect the industry to the stories that matter, inspire, and are essential for giving credit to the unsung heroes of the road we have the privilege to work with every day.

In this episode Aaron from Loadsmart sits down with Stori from Gulf Intermodal Services to discuss how they came together to keep their owner operators – who are paid by the move – safe and moving.

Aaron: Do you want to tell us a little bit about GIS?

Stori: Since 1997 Gulf Intermodal Services, also known as GIS, has been providing container drayage for the entire Gulf region. We are an IMC company, so we have coverage nationwide. With GIS we have a little over 200 trucks and that’s here in Houston, New Orleans, Mobile, Baton Rouge. Majority of our guys and woman are owner operators

Aaron: Is there anything specific you’ve seen evolve over the past couple of years?

Stori: I was born into this industry. My Father started with the ILA here in Houston when he was 18 years so I pretty much grew up on the docks.

I started in the industry when I was 20 years old. I got a job as a data entry clerk. We did everything by paper, we had computers and we would enter things, but dispatches were paper. Everything was paper. The drivers would have to come to the window and get their dispatches for the next day. I would have a delivery order that I would have to enter. Nowadays, everything is done by the computer, our drivers have tablets, we’re paperless. Same with invoicing. Invoicing was always done by paper in an envelope and you mail it. Now you just email it and it’s paid. It’s definitely changed a whole lot since 2007.

Aaron: Speaking of change, are there any challenges that either didn’t exist or didn’t exist as intensely?

Stori: A little detail on our drivers, our owner operators. They’re paid by the move. And so when you saw that decline in volume, all we could think about was ‘oh my gosh, we have to keep these guys moving so they can make a living for their family.’

We really came together to figure out ‘ok what ways can we get creative and find cost savings.’ So I think one of the main challenges on everyone’s mind was how do we keep everyone safe and moving.

Read More »

Join Loadsmart’s Director of Carrier Sales, Jordan Abrams, for less than 60 seconds as he breaks down what happened last week and what to expect this week in the freight market.

This is a weekly series that brings the insights we use to get your shipments from A to B from our carrier sales floor to your home office.

What we saw last week

• Volumes remain high, rejections stay strong and capacity is limited! 
• It was another week in a challenging market and another record in volumes.
• They have increased 19% MoM and just under 50% from past years. Without any signs of slowing down..
• The National rejection rate had another large increase to over 23% from 21% at the beginning of the week. 
• OB LA and NJ ports remain busy as the influx of container activity remains high

What to expect this week

• We expect rejections to continue to climb past 2018 – I think we can expect to see levels over 25%. 
  • When can we expect this to slow down? Best guess: 2021!
• We have Labor Day on the horizon and Roadcheck Week in mid- September. These events will absolutely have decrease capacity nationwide effects and increased rates. 
• Gear up and set shipper expectations early!

Stay Up to Date

With all the latest weekly and monthly market insights on our Youtube page. Questions about anything you saw? Email sales@loadsmart.com and let’s talk about how we can help you take advantage of real-time market conditions.

We’re in the business of connecting the logistics industry, but that doesn’t stop at connecting shipments with carriers. This is our second episode of On the Road with Loadsmart, a platform to connect the industry to the stories that matter, inspire, and are essential for giving credit to the unsung heroes of the road we have the privilege to work with every day.

In this episode Aaron from Loadsmart sits down with Coleman from Hunter Transportation to discuss how since starting operations in 1998 with one truck (and subsequently growing his fleet to 35), he’s learned to brace for the bottom and ride the wave back up to profitability in volatile markets.

Aaron: Do you want to tell us a little bit about Hunter?

Coleman: My business partner and I Randal Orvig started the company in 1998, working out of a spare bedroom in the house. We had to throw one of the sons out, make him bunk with his younger brother and took over the office. Soon thereafter we were asked to vacate the premises because we were too disruptive. 

We started with one truck. That was my business partner driving it and I was doing the sales and dispatch. Our fleet is currently 35 trucks. We at one point were more than that, but during the pandemic we shrunk a little bit and now we’re back on the upswing to start building again.

We are an intermodal ocean container hauler. We move containers locally and regionally in Carolinas and Georgia. We own and maintain our own chassis. As we are both import and export, we haul a variety of commodities. 

Aaron: You’ve had the perspective to see volatile markets before the one that we’re currently in. Have you ever experienced the changes to your business that you’ve experienced over the last couple of months?

Coleman: Back in 2008 and 2009 with the financial meltdown, that opened our eyes to what could go wrong. And what we needed to do to solidify ourselves and get back up and rolling again. With every incident or episode you always hope there’s a bottom. And then you hope you can ride back up the wave to profitability.

Read More »

Join Loadsmart’s Carrier Sales Manager, James Fahey, for less than 60 seconds as he breaks down what happened last week and what to expect this week in the freight market.

This is a weekly series that brings the insights we use to get your shipments from A to B from our carrier sales floor to your home office.

What we saw last week

• Volumes remained elevated last week, well above 2018 and 2019, running in the +20-25% range. The OTRI shows nearly 1 in 5 contracted loads being rejected, with linehaul rates pushing towards $2/mi. OTVI increased another 3.6% to a new all-time high of 14,238. 
• FMCSA reinstated emergency restocking of food, groceries and paper products in the latest HOS waiver. The categories were removed in June, when they modified and extended the waiver, but due to current conditions, FMCSA extended those items into Sept. 14th.
• USPS faced scrutiny this week as it brought in a new controversial leader. The organization is facing headwinds due to the significant amount of e-commerce it has been handling, an enormous financial burden due to pensions, and it’s place in the 2020 Presidential elections with mail-in voting. 
• Initial jobless claims dropped below 1 million for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March. Though claims remain elevated and in recessionary territory, it’s encouraging when compared to the 7 million filings in March and economists expectations of 1.1 million claims. The bigger than expected drop in claims follows an ebbing in new cases and the expiration of the $600 add-on in unemployment benefits at the end of July.

What to expect this week

• OTRI showed decreases last week, though the decreases were minimal, they were the first decreases since the great freight rally, which could indicate a stabilization or plateau in the marketplace.  
• The possibility of another round of stimulus should be on everyone’s mind. Though the House and Senate were not able to agree upon a third round of stimulus, which can have a negative implication on consumer spending, we are seeing a spike in container rates particularly on the Trans-Pacific routes, which implicates a rate spike driven entirely by demand.

Stay Up to Date

With all the latest weekly and monthly market insights on our Youtube page. Questions about anything you saw? Email sales@loadsmart.com and let’s talk about how we can help you take advantage of real-time market conditions.

It’s 2020 — self-driving trucks exist, more powerful rockets are launching into space, and companies of all sizes are digitizing the analog aspects of their businesses.

The transportation sector is no different. API calls are quickly replacing phone calls, and algorithms are automating what was previously manual. The march toward a technology-driven supply chain isn’t new, but for transportation departments in many companies, it’s only just begun. 

With an agile approach, the goal is to test technology quickly and evaluate its effectiveness iteratively rather than creating a committee and launching an RFP process. This is especially relevant for light-weight technologies that don’t require drastic process changes, contracts, and down payments the size of mortgages. However, it doesn’t mean skipping careful consideration.

So, where should transportation teams who are looking to upgrade their technology stack begin? 

Find the Gaps

There is no decent manager in history that hasn’t offered praise for increasing productivity and decreasing costs. Don’t wait for the ask; just map it out.

Where are you and your team spending the most time day-to-day? Which tasks are being repeated frequently that can be automated? Which operating expenses can be decreased or eliminated? What work would the team rather not be doing?

Once you’ve made your list of gaps, rank them within a weighted scale that includes the most important success factors. This could consist of your expectations for:

• Time saved
• Cost recouped
• Revenue increased
• Time to value
• Ease of use
• Ease of implementation

Forecasting expectations are never perfect, but the output of this will serve as your blueprint for success. 

Plan the ROI 

The quickest way to get the green light for exploring new technology is to rank the gaps you’ve identified by their cost burden and plan the ROI. This can be done easily with a little common sense. 

In transportation, common pitfalls that are easy-to-address are staff costs for repetitive tasks.

A few examples:

• Freight Rate Discovery
  Formula: Loads Per Day * Staff Cost to Book Load = Daily Rate Discovery Cost
  
  
• Tracking and Rescheduling a Load
  Formula: Cost to Monitor Loads + Cost to Reschedule Loads = Daily Cost of Time to Track and Reschedule
  
  
• Re-booking Freight Loads Given Back
  Formula: (Loads Per Day Given Back * Cost of Rate Discovery Per Load) + (Premium Uplift) = Daily Rate Discovery Cost for Loads Given Back

Quick math using these formulas and assuming 200 loads per week, 262 business days per year, $25 per hour staff costs, and a 15% premium uplift with $1,000 COH estimate that this shipper spends $191,260.00 annually for these automatable and avoidable tasks. With a $0 Loadsmart TMS integration, for example, these overhead costs can be significantly reduced or eliminated.

Where your gaps are widest, the technology will likely pay for itself. 

Dig into the Technology… and the Company

Now that you’ve gotten everyone on board by pointing out the addressable efficiency gains by automating repetitive but critical daily tasks, the challenge is to choose the best technology and company for tackling them.

What’s unique with supply chain technology companies is that their merits go far beyond their products. Today, technology alone doesn’t move freight over oceans, out of ports, onto roads, and to final destinations. Instead, this is achieved with a combination of companies, technologies, people, and partnerships. 

A handful of questions you may ask about the vendors:

1. Which companies do they compete with, and how do they compare?
2. How successful are they? Are they starting or scaling up, and are they likely to be around in 5 years?
3. How’s the customer service? 
4. What’s their vision? What other problems can they address now and in the future?
5. Are they partnered with companies I want to work with?
6. Is this an ethical company?

For a proper evaluation, it’s always worth reading what analysts are saying. If you don’t have access to it, ask the vendors. 

Read More »

Join Loadsmart’s Director of Carrier Sales, Jordan Abrams, for less than 60 seconds as he breaks down what happened last week and what to expect this week in the freight market.

This is a weekly series that brings the insights we use to get your shipments from A to B from our carrier sales floor to your home office.

What we saw last week

• Volumes continue to increase now over 30% above past years and over 5% higher than March panic buying
• There are still no signs of volumes slowing down So buckle up.
• The market remains a carrier market – meaning freight is of abundance and they have their selection with lanes and rates.
• As Americans adjust to the new normal they are spending less on services and more on goods causing increased demand for trucks. 
• Hurricane Isaias caused freight volatility in its path up the east coast starting in the Carolinas and resting up in upstate NY.

What to expect this week

• We can expect the tightness across the country to continue as volume, OTRI and rate trends increase
• We are seeing lots of demand on the waters, inbound from China – volumes will continue.
• We will feel the effects of Isaias as it caused flooding and facility shut downs in the NE. Expect rail freight to convert to OTR.
• We also expect the Midwest markets to tighten as L/T ratios increase within IN, MI and the OH river valley 

Stay Up to Date

With all the latest weekly and monthly market insights on our Youtube page. Questions about anything you saw? Email sales@loadsmart.com and let’s talk about how we can help you take advantage of real-time market conditions.

Join Loadsmart’s Carrier Sales Manager, James Fahey, for less than 60 seconds on this episode of Loadsmart First Look Weekly Market Recap.

This is a weekly series that brings the insights we use to get your shipments from A to B from our carrier sales floor to your home office. Each week keep up with what we saw last week and what we expect to see this week in the freight market.

What we saw last week

• EOM means higher rates and increased volumes
• Though employment, manufacturing and industrial production are down, the amount of finished goods flowing through the supply chain is continually increasing and straining tight capacity. OTRI has increased again from 18.57% to 19.18%. While we hit a new 2.5yr high for outbound tenders, as the US consumer is hungry for finished goods. As rejections continue to climb, national long-haul rates are averaging $1.88/mi, while spot rates are inching within cents of contracted rates, a massive inflection point for shippers to be cognizant of.
• In addition, we saw DAT Spot rates increased again 2.6% last week marking 13 consecutive weeks of rate increases.
• Rail carload data is showing the industrial sector is starting to recover, up 6.5% from last week, and though still down year over year, this could indicate a strong Q3 and Q4 for transportation providers.
• Markets in Southern California, Texas, Little Rock, Memphis and Harrisburg show high tender rejection rates on “tweener loads” (loads that run between 450-800 miles), indicating that carriers have other options on mid-haul or long-haul loads.

What to expect this week

• Hurricane Isaias made landfall in FL over the weekend and bring disruptions into the FL market. Anticipate inbound rates to spike, while outbound orders may fall due to production issues. The storm is projected to turn northeast throughout the week and affect large swathes of the Northeast Seaboard, bringing rain and coastal flooding.
• The Ports of Long Beach and LA have seen another spike in container volumes, which could further strain capacity in SoCal. Intermodal cap is already tight in the area, well ahead of intermodal peak season, and tweener rejections are elevated out of California, as carriers are seeking to stay in the region. Expect tweener and long haul volumes rates to further increase.
• The Port of New York reached a YTD-High for imports last week, volumes for Port of NY and NJ have seen a 32% increase over the past two weeks. This coincides with capacity constraints in much of the Northeast.
• Initial jobless claims have increased for the past two weeks to 1.434million and continued claims rose 5.4% up to 17.02million. As Congress is still working to extend unemployment benefits and a second round of stimulus, expect headwinds until approved.

Stay Up to Date

With all the latest weekly and monthly market insights on our Youtube page. Questions about anything you saw? Email sales@loadsmart.com and let’s talk about how we can help you take advantage of real-time market conditions.