The amount of freight on the spot market has increased along with rates in two out of the three major categories.

Freight matching service provider DAT reports from Feb. 16 through Feb. 22 the average rate for vans increased 0.5% compared to the previous seven days, hitting $1.98 per mile, its best showing out of the last four weeks.

Flatbed rates also increased, adding 1%, for an average of $2.10 per mile, its best performance in the past month. Reefer rates fell 0.9% to $2.11 per mile, a drop of 5 cents over the past two weeks, though DAT describes the reefer rate as still rather high for this time of the year.

All this happened as the number of spot market loads available increased 13% while capacity fell 3.8%.

Load-to-truck ratios increased across the board, with the biggest being seen in the flatbed category, adding 25%, while van and reefers increased by 16% and 10%, respectively.