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Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Zach Strickland, the “Sultan of SONAR,” curates the weekly market update. Zach is also one of FreightWaves’ Market Experts. With a degree in Finance, Strickland spent the early part of his career in banking before transitioning to transportation in various roles and segments, such as truckload and LTL. He has over 13 years of transportation experience, specializing in data, pricing, and analytics.
Dec - 2024 -
21 December
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Will the maritime momentum continue in 2025?

Import demand has increased over the past two years as companies have largely corrected inventories and navigated treacherous waters in the maritime industry.

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14 December
07 December
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Reefer market tightens: Rising tender rejections signal shifting dynamics

Rising reefer tender rejection rates suggest the refrigerated truckload market is facing a tighter transportation procurement environment.

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Nov - 2024 -
09 November
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Spot rates break out ahead of holidays

Spot and tender rejection rates point to a strong tightening in the national truckload market. Is this the end of the freight market recession?

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Oct - 2024 -
26 October
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Contract rates stabilize on shipper expectations

Truckload contract rates are starting to move higher in an environment where they have every reason to continue to fall.

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11 October
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Milton makes landfall on freight market

Hurricane Milton was the third large disruptor to transportation markets in three weeks. What happens next?

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Sep - 2024 -
28 September
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Freight market green shoots fade heading into October

Many of the signs of the end to the freight recession have faded, at least in the short run. A strike and the aftermath of a major hurricane are looming disruptors but probably not enough to sustainably shift the market. But the data still points to the end of this historically loose environment.

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14 September
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Intermodal gains share, but at what cost?

Intermodal providers are taking share with grace, but is it counterproductive to pricing gains?

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07 September
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Lackluster Labor Day gives no lift to trucking market

The truckload market appears to be increasingly stable through a period when it normally isn’t. While the immediate future appears uneventful, the holiday shipping season is anything but certain.

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Aug - 2024 -
31 August
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

What the surge in empty container moves says about the freight market

Empty containers could be a strong transportation demand signal for September, but the market appears ready to handle it, for now.

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17 August
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Refrigerated truckload market grows more vulnerable as fall harvest nears

The lack of volatility in produce-hauling rates out of California this summer supports the idea that the refrigerated market has more than seasonal pressure pushing rates higher.

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10 August
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Unexpectedly strong import wave keeps rolling through peak season

Inventory pull-forward has been the driving theory behind container import growth, but data suggests that may not be as true as people think. What are the implications to domestic transportation markets?

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Jul - 2024 -
27 July
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Truckload contracts still falling despite increasing spot pressure

Why are truckload spot and contract rates moving in opposite directions, and what does that mean for the future?

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Jun - 2024 -
29 June
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Maritime shipping still on troubled waters

The international shipping market has once again destabilized, with no real signs of relief.

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22 June
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Cracks in trucking capacity show up in the South

The Southeast’s capacity issues do not appear to be originating from increasing demand, at least not from the region itself.

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15 June
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

What nearshoring?

Maritime import demand for the U.S. is as strong as it has ever been, second only to the pandemic boom. What does this mean for the upcoming peak season, and how does it affect domestic transportation?

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08 June
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Summer shipping demand lifts truckload market

The freight market has not turned strongly yet, but some historical patterns may help map when it will.

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May - 2024 -
18 May
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Historic trucking rate disparity could cripple service in late ’24

The wide range of spot and contract rates being offered may help trigger a strong market shift later in the year.

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04 May
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

It’s Florida season

Mother’s Day tightness has returned to the Florida refrigerated freight markets, but this year is different.

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Apr - 2024 -
27 April
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Abundant capacity is hiding freight pattern shifts

Demand pattern shifts are invisible in an oversupplied freight market, which may lead to problems once supply-and-demand conditions become more balanced.

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13 April
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Refrigerated market flatlines in the spring

The refrigerated truckload market has fallen back in alignment with the broader market this spring, but that doesn’t mean it will stay there.

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06 April
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Fuel costs show why transportation market is so challenging for providers

Operating cost inflation is largely hidden, but fuel costs help explain why the domestic truckload market is headed for a turn.

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Mar - 2024 -
30 March
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Tractor demand no longer necessarily a gauge for market health

Heavy truck orders are not an indicator of for-hire truckload market health and haven’t been since the pandemic ended.

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23 March
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Is Mexico becoming the new China?

Whether it is nearshoring, tariff bypasses or something else entirely, the Southern border is becoming increasingly important for domestic transportation.

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02 March
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Is the rate roller coaster about to turn?

Pricing trends and rejection rates are signaling a market shift is approaching. What should market participants do?

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Feb - 2024 -
24 February
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Have inventories found their sweet spot?

Inventory and procurement teams have earned their salaries over the past five years. Are they entering an extended period of stability, or is this only a rare moment of reprieve.

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17 February
10 February
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Trucking authority correction accelerates

The current level of deterioration is historically fast, meaning the truckload market has the increasing potential to flip to a much tighter environment without much notice.

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Jan - 2024 -
27 January
13 January
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Flatbed and refrigerated trucking poised to tighten in 2024

Flatbed and refrigerated truckload data suggests their markets may have floored for these two trailer types.

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06 January
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

What the Red Sea conflict means for domestic transportation

The conflict in the Middle East may have late-year implications for the domestic transportation market.

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Dec - 2023 -
16 December
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Truckload supply and demand on collision course in 2024

The data does suggest that the supply of capacity and demand for its use is moving back toward equilibrium at a relatively fast clip.

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09 December
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

The one pandemic-era trend that has stuck

Shippers are bucking history and giving carriers more time to pick up their freight in a relatively soft market. What could be causing this and will it stick?

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02 December
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Atlanta becomes casualty of imports returning to West Coast

Shippers are reverting to pre-pandemic shipping patterns, which may exacerbate the next freight market shift.

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Nov - 2023 -
18 November
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

LMI showing transportation market flip is coming

The Logistics Managers’ Index has done a great job of explaining freight market capacity shifts over the past several years. The last few months are painting a picture of a market that is racing toward a correction.

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11 November
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Diminished inventories may boost holiday expediting

After a relatively easy year for shipping and rightsizing inventories, shippers may have set up a holiday season in which expedited shipments become more prevalent.

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04 November
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Key US lane shows soft freight market still vulnerable to shipping imbalance

The overall freight transportation market may be soft but the natural imbalance in the flow of freight is still able to create pockets of tightness.

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Oct - 2023 -
28 October
21 October
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

How long will the capacity correction take?

It may not seem or read like it, but the trucking market is slowly tightening. The question is how much time till it is noticeable?

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07 October
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Truckload spot and contract rate spread remains unnaturally wide heading into bid season

Spot and contract rates have stabilized with an unnaturally large gap between them. Is this sustainable or just a pause before the fall?

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Sep - 2023 -
09 September
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Refrigerated truckload tender rejection rate spike temporary but telling

Removing future threats to demand, the refrigerated truckload sector supports the thesis that the truckload market has hit a floor.

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02 September
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

The truckload capacity bubble is bursting

FreightWaves latest SONAR data addition suggests a wave of truckload capacity exits is coming this winter.

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Aug - 2023 -
27 August
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Truckload capacity tightens in August

National truckload tender rejections topped 4% for the first time since the holiday season last year. Is this a sign that the trucking market is turning the corner?

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19 August
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Border town boom is realigning the freight market

As companies are shifting their sourcing and logistics networks, it is changing the way transportation providers will have to manage their own businesses.

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05 August
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Contract rate decline takes pause despite significant spot market discount

Transportation providers are going to have to maintain an aggressive posture when competing for business during the upcoming bid season.

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Jul - 2023 -
29 July
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Unseasonable rise in demand provides much-needed optimism for transportation providers

An unseasonable upward trend in truckload tender volumes is giving domestic transportation providers the potential inflection point they have waiting for.

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22 July
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

LTL rates bounce as Yellow struggles with union

The less-than-truckload sector has been disrupted by a very public dispute between Yellow and the Teamsters. Rates have already seemingly responded and may continue to see support.

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15 July
08 July
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Has the freight bubble burst?

There are some positive signs that the freight market has cleared most of the post-pandemic rubble, but full recovery is still a ways off.

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01 July
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Contract rate decline puts capacity at risk

If the spread between contract and spot rates narrows, capacity will become increasingly inconsistent in the second half of the year.

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Jun - 2023 -
10 June
May - 2023 -
13 May
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Companies’ drive for expanding margins threatens future freight demand

Companies are still trying to get their margins back to pre-pandemic levels with price increases on finished goods. This will continue to put freight demand at risk in the second half of the year.

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06 May
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Flatbed keeps riding post-pandemic wave

Flatbed capacity tends to be as erratic as its demand, making it harder to secure in general.

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Apr - 2023 -
29 April
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Did the freight market just hit the floor?

After over a year of declining volumes and rates, trucking spot rates have leveled and demand has just witnessed an unseasonable jump.

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23 April
15 April
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Southern California transportation demand plummets below pre-pandemic levels

Southern California markets were flush with transportation activity during the pandemic. That has eroded and then some. This has not only left transportation networks exposed operationally but also created pricing gaps.

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01 April
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Truckload spot market may bottom in April

Upstream and historic values are predicting another strong deterioration in truckload spot rates in April. How seriously should we take this?

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Feb - 2023 -
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Truckload market has 25% too much capacity

Perhaps the biggest question of 2023 for domestic trucking is when will the surplus of capacity fade to a point that prices stop falling. One data point provides deeper insight than simply a count of drivers or tractors.

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18 February
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Rail may have missed its window for growth

When trucking capacity tightens and rates increase, intermodal shipping by rail becomes more attractive in general. That does not appear to have happened during the pandemic years.

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11 February
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Import demand continues to fall

Lunar New Year normally brings a slow shipping period for imports, but the lead-in period was also lackluster. With many companies calling for a return to seasonal patterns later in the year, just how close are we to that being a reality?

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Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

La demanda de importaciones sigue cayendo 

Los datos marítimos sugieren que los transportadores siguen teniendo problemas con la demanda

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04 February
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Trucking demand visibility is far more important than supply

Many people get hung up on trying to figure out how much capacity is readily available in trucking when they should be more focused on monitoring demand trends.

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Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

La visibilidad de la demanda de camiones es mucho más importante que la oferta 

La capacidad de transporte por carretera es relativamente estable, mientras que la demanda es cualquier cosa menos estable.

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Jan - 2023 -
28 January
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

California’s loss is Texas’ gain

Are supply chains already manifesting significant changes in domestic transportation patterns?

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Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

California pierde y Texas gana 

Los dos mayores estados del país para el transporte de mercancías se mueven en direcciones opuestas

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21 January
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Trucking demand falls faster than inventories in December

Inventory growth in December is not a great sign for carriers who are expecting the market to bottom this winter.

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09 January
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Tender acceptance at all-time high level for the holidays

Truckload carriers nearly auto-accepted load requests during the holidays. While this may look like a blessing to shippers, the implications are not great.

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Dec - 2022 -
17 December
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Contract becomes the new spot freight

Truckload carriers are providing the best contract compliance since COVID started during a traditionally chaotic time. What does this mean for 2023?

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10 December
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Low-volume Northwest becomes nation’s tightest region

Normally one of the softest regions for truckload activity in the U.S., the Pacific Northwest has become the tightest in the nation.

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03 December
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Fuel price spread favors large fleets

Fuel costs are a huge cost component of operating a trucking business. Small operators are at a significant disadvantage in the current market thanks not only to declining demand but fuel price volatility.

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Nov - 2022 -
30 November
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

FreightWaves SONAR breaks down borders with rate benchmarking into Canada

FreightWaves has announced that SONAR customers can now see Canadian data within the Supply Chain Intelligence (SCI) platform.

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19 November
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Freight demand has not found the floor

Transportation demand continues to erode heading into the slowest months of the year. Could this be the bottom?

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16 November
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

FreightWaves SONAR releases new tools to measure the domestic truckload market

FreightWaves SONAR recently released two new market analysis tools that provide lane-level rate benchmarking capabilities and insight into the future state of the domestic truckload spot market. 

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12 November
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Auto freight rolling strong as economy hits the brakes

The automotive industry has been going strong while other sectors of the economy are slowing. What are some of the reasons for this and how long will it last?

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Oct - 2022 -
29 October
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Carriers will become own worst enemy as demand declines

Truckload contract rates have slowed their descent after a quick drop in August. What should we make of this as demand continues to ease?

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22 October
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

How far from the bottom are we?

Declining contract volumes may bring large carriers into the spot market, forcing spot rates into negative margin territory if they are not already there.

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08 October
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Less-than-truckload rates continue to increase amid transportation downturn

The truckload market is already experiencing a rapid deterioration in pricing. How long until the LTL market recognizes this inevitability?

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01 October
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

No disaster relief for spot rates

Carriers and brokers tend to have the weather on a TV somewhere in their facilities throughout hurricane season because of the dramatic impacts storms can have on their operations and bottom lines. Ian hit at a time when trucking will not be as reactive to this devastating storm.

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Sep - 2022 -
24 September
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Trucking caught in crossfire of Fed’s war on inflation

The ghost of Paul Volcker is stalking truckload carriers as Fed Chairman Jerome Powell looks to his mentor’s 40-year-old strategy to quell inflation. The lagging impacts from the recent interest rate hikes will inevitably erode demand several months into the future.

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17 September
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Rail strike threat may have goosed truckload demand

Outbound truckload tender volumes spiked this week out of Southern California, while intermodal volumes dipped due to a brief embargo. Could this be a result of shippers preparing for a potential strike?

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10 September
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Truckers work through Labor Day as market continues to soften

Carriers gobble up contracted freight, leaving the spot market barren for the holiday week. While not overtly obvious, there is still some semblance of hope for a decent peak season for carriers.

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Aug - 2022 -
27 August
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

What does East Coast import shift mean for domestic transportation?

Importers have been shifting to the East Coast since 2021, but the full realization of this has peaked over the summer. The shifting import pattern has strong downstream effects for surface transportation providers.

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13 August
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Demand no longer main driver of inflation

Demand side indicators have been falling since 2021, but inflation continues to be the primary concern for the economy. The problem is there is little the Federal Reserve can be expected to be able to do, thanks to the cause of inflation shifting to the supply side.

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Jul - 2022 -
30 July
Zach Strickland, FW Market Expert & Market Analyst

Contract truckload rates will likely soften in the coming months

The spread between spot and contract truckload rates is unsustainable. The question is just how far and fast will they fall?

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