Available Freight on Spot Market Falls, Rates not Improving

The amount of spot market freight available at the end of May and into the first of June fell dramatically while rates barely changed.

New figures from freight-matching service provider DAT TransCore show May 26 through June 1, the number of spot market loads available in the U.S. fell 19% from the previous seven days.

Rates for dry vans and reefers were unchanged during the period, coming in at an average of $1.82 and $2.14 per mile, respectively. In contrast rates for flatbeds fell 0.5% to an average of $2.13 per mile.

Load-to-truck numbers improved for flatbeds, gaining 5.4%, followed by dry vans increasing 1.8%. Reefers fell sharply by 12%.

When May is compared to the same time a year ago numbers on the spot market are down across the board with overall freight availability declining 9.9% while load-to-truck numbers in the three major sectors fell between 9.4% to as much as 39%.

As for rates, they are down by as much as 7.4% for flatbeds, while dropping much less for dry vans and reefers, falling 1.1% and 0.5%, respectively.