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Lincoln’s logs: Target the upper Midwest

Image: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

Image: Jim Allen/FreightWaves

FreightWaves’ Lincoln Duff delivered an insightful freight market tidbit Thursday, August 29.

Hello TPP Group Members, and welcome to my favorite day of the year: The start of college football! (Note: last week didn’t count, it was a good primer, but the football was sloppy and Florida was lucky to get that win). 

For those of you who, like myself, spend months thinking about your team and convincing yourself they’ll go 15-0, the wait is almost over! Unfortunately your team will most likely not go 15-0, and could even lose this weekend, but right now we’re all filled with optimism and hope! With all of that said, let’s get to today’s Freight Market Playbook.


Target the upper Midwest

After a quick huddle with some of the FreightWaves Market Experts and SONAR, it was clear today’s touchdown will be found in the upper Midwest. Tender rejections have spiked over the last few days, specifically the Dakota regions and western Minnesota. Tender rejections in those areas are up over 30%, with reefer tender rejection rates spiking up over 60%. 

Chart:    FreightWaves SONAR

Chart: FreightWaves SONAR

What does this mean for you?


Shippers have fumbled the ball and the carriers can take advantage of the turnover. Because of the spike in tender rejections, these shippers are having a hard time covering their freight, and even a harder time with reefer loads. If you have a truck in the area look for spot loads and bid higher than normal. This is a great chance to increase revenues or for your brokerage operations, drive up margin…a real Hail Mary.

Bottom line: 

Accept all loads into the upper midwest, then increase your bids for spot freight in the area. If you have reefer trailers send all of them you can up there, as you should be able to drive up rates this week. 

Follow these leads today and you should have a nice comfortable win, just like I hope all of your teams do… unless you root for Ohio State!

Chris Henry

Chris Henry has spent his entire 20-year career in transportation. In 2014, he founded the online motor carrier benchmarking service StakUp. As a result of a partnership with the Truckload Carriers Association (TCA) in 2015, StakUp was rebranded as inGauge and Henry became the program manager for the TCA Profitability Program (TPP), an exclusive benchmarking initiative that includes more than 230 motor carrier participants throughout North America. Since joining the program, participation in TPP has grown over 300%. In June 2019, StakUp was acquired by FreightWaves and Henry became its vice president of carrier profitability, in addition to his role with TPP. Henry earned an MBA from the University of Massachusetts and a bachelor of commerce degree from Nipissing University.