Loadsmart First Look Weekly Market Recap: Oct 12 – Oct 18

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.

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

What We Saw Last Week

We are finally starting to see some semblance of stabilization in the market. National Tender rejections continued to drop last week to the mid 25% and VOTRI decreased a smidge while ROTRI held steady at the 43%.

That being said, don’t be fooled by the term stable. Volumes remain strong with seven straight weeks above 15k and 52% above 2019, but even volumes have started to stabilize and we expect them to continue through November.

Hurricane Delta seemed to put most of its hitting power into LA, but not much elsewhere. Lake Charles and New Orleans were a challenge to move to or through due to flooding and road closures.

What To Expect This Week

The gap between average contract rates and spot rates continues to grow. Currently, average contract rates sit at $2.27 while spot sits at $2.44/mi. This is causing more and more carriers to give back their contracts and renegotiate their lanes as we head into the final months of the year.

SoCal, E PA, NJ maritime shipments continue to be strong. These markets make up 14% of the domestic freight market (S Cal 8% and Newark/E PA 6%). As long as these markets are hot, expect capacity to be limited and rates to be high

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.