Loadsmart First Look Weekly Market Recap for Aug 10 – Aug 16

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.