Spot Freight Down Over Holiday Week, Rates Up

Spot market freight levels were down for the Independence Day holiday week, but rates were up, according to DAT and Truckstop.com, two major services tracking spot market data.

Truckstop.com reported that three of four key market indicators dropped:

• The Market Demand Index fell 4.1 points to 67.3. Compared to last year the MDI is up 19.1 points, or 39.5%.
• Load availability decreased 16.2%
• Truck availability declined 11.2%.

Market rates rose 3.4% to $2.20, but year over year, rates are down 0.4%, according to Truckstop.com data.

Similarly, DAT reported that for the week ending July 5, activity on the DAT One load board network slowed due to the Fourth of July holiday, but the freight that did move did so at a premium, pushing national average rates higher.

In a DAT blog post before the holiday, Dean Croke, principal analyst at DAT iQ, pointed oout that freight volumes and rates typically cool after July 4, “but unlike in previous years where seasonality is predictable, this year no one is really sure what lies ahead.”

DAT recently reported that contract freight volumes were down 6.3% year-over-year in May. “Those volumes did increase 3% from the previous month, which is some positive news in what’s been an otherwise grim freight market,” Croke wrote, but “it's still too early to know the final shape of the economic recovery, and part of that is due to state economies reopening on different timelines and following different standards. This means the pace of the freight recovery will vary by region.”