The amount of freight on one of the nation’s biggest spot market providers shows the number of loads available has fallen dramatically over the past week.

In its newest weekly Trendlines, DAT TransCore reports a decline of 16% for the week of March 31through April 6 compared to a week earlier, while it's 4.1% lower than the same time a year ago.

Rates, however, trended upward over the past week, with those for vans increasing 2.2%, flatbeds gaining 3.3% and reefers gaining the most at 4.5%.

All rates are also higher from four weeks ago, with nine of the top 13 van markets showing positive rates over the past four weeks. DAT also reports six of the top 14 reefer markets are trending up over the last week, while 11 are positive over the last four weeks. Eight of the top 18 flatbed markets are trending down over a four-week period.

Compared to a year ago rates are not as good. Although van rates showed a 0.6% increase year over year, rates for flatbed freight dropped 5.4% and reefers fell 0.5%.