TRANSPORTATION TRENDS: 12-26-2022

Truckload market capacity tightens as shippers push out last minute freight before the holidays and truck postings decline. The last week of the year still shows operational challenges with holiday schedules.

Holiday Season:

TLI hopes that you all experienced a wonderful Christmas weekend! Carriers will continue to operate with limited operations based on their holiday schedules. With New Years Day falling on Sunday, it may be typical for carriers to run only skeleton crews on Monday, January 2. Please plan accordingly and let TLI team know of any holiday schedules for your company and your customers when scheduling shipments.

Truckload:

The holiday weekend brought a surge of freight being pushed out last week, especially for refrigerated equipment. Load-to-Truck ratios increased 69.3% last week with no surprise as the country saw a shift in temperature across the nation.

Although there was a high increase across all modes (Dry van +22.6%, Flatbed +13.5%), spot rates only increased 3.1% for Dry Vans, 2.2% for Flatbeds, and 5.1% for refrigerated equipment. Truck postings were -25.2% week-over-week. These increases are associated with last-minute freight shipments and carriers not operating during the holiday weekend.

Less-Than-Truckload:

Freight volumes have dropped around 5 – 10% for most LTL carriers. From our conversations, carriers have capacity but are still taking on new business with a scalpel approach that works for their operations. Primary concerns going into the new year are continued effects from inflation and volumes as China Lockdowns are lifted. These are two factors to consider as we head into the new year.

LTL carriers are continually working through capacity issues on a terminal, shipment, and day-to-day basis. Weekly updates/directions are given by carriers to help alleviate their terminal which may include: freight embargos, dimension/quantity restrictions, and transit delays. TLI is actively monitoring these situations and will update any affected customer with solutions.