The recent AB5 ruling will make it difficult for regional operators to handle the ongoing short-haul and drayage demand in California.

Capacity normally tightens in the week leading up to the Fourth of July. The lack of upward movement from spot and rejection rates this past week suggests the market is either propped up by the holiday or seasonal patterns have not returned.

Contract rates have grown at their fastest pace in history over the pandemic era. The contract to spot rate spread fluctuation is an argument for smarter and more efficient growth strategies for carriers.

Import volumes have not realized the dip in shipping orders yet. What does this mean?

Inventory growth has forced companies to change their ordering strategy to a more flexible model.

The contracted freight market is in great condition at the moment, but the short-term indicators raise questions about its sustainability.

FreightWaves releases rate spread indexes in SONAR.

The truckload spot market has fallen apart over the past two months. Larger fleets are in far better shape for weathering the storm.

El costo del combustible ha agravado la erosión de los márgenes en el mercado spot de camiones

Shippers book maritime containers well before it turns into trucking and rail freight in the U.S. The relationship between international and domestic freight strengthened during the pandemic and they are both pointing toward a summer slump.

Container Atlas, the latest addition to SONAR, provides deep-dive data into the maritime sector.

El Índice Nacional de Camiones de FreightWaves es la forma más rápida y precisa de medir la actividad de los camiones en Estados Unidos

New index is fastest, most accurate way to measure US trucking activity

Not all loads are created equal in trucking. Loads moving across the country have a much greater impact on capacity and subsequently spot rates and they are disappearing at an astonishing rate compared to their shorter counterparts.

Many transportation managers and providers are expecting a return to a simpler time, but the data shows simpler times may be a thing of the past.

Heavily contracted carriers are not feeling the full brunt of the truckload market easing just yet, but there is still a lot to be determined about what happens next.

Slower transit times may be what shippers need as inventory levels and costs surge to all-time highs.

Stability lulled transportation managers and providers to sleep in the six years post-recession. The roller-coaster ride of the last four may be more indicative of their future.

Truckload capacity has been extremely difficult to secure over the past 18 months, but the tender data shows things may be changing, rapidly.

Inventory levels grew at an astonishing pace in February. Is the supply chain crisis ending?

The wild fluctuations in crude oil prices have created a strong disconnect between wholesale and retail diesel prices. What are the impacts on transportation costs and subsequently carrier bottom lines?

Relatively abundant for most of the pandemic, flatbed capacity has become scarcer than ever thanks to the surging price of crude and a white-hot construction sector.

The conflict is 8,000 miles away from North America but supply chains are global, which means any disruption around the world is a threat to their well-being. As the impact of COVID diminishes, a new geopolitical threat arises.

Shippers have been bidding against each other for capacity over the past year with little to show for it, and it appears paying more will not solve the crunch.

Carriers are pricing themselves into the markets with the highest rates, which is further fueling the capacity shortage.

Equipment price inflation not only inhibits capacity growth it carries consequences well into the future.

China’s biggest holiday used to have a dramatic impact on U.S. transportation and the flow of goods. Now it seems more of an afterthought.

Carriers are working hard on covering the high-priced West Coast freight, leaving shippers in the Northeast wanting.

Reefer demand remains strong heading into late January, breaking seasonal patterns that many have come to expect.

Prices have increased 17% but carrier compliance shows only marginal improvement

After a year of record demand, shippers are hesitant to pull their feet off the accelerators heading into the “slow” season.

After a year and a half of predictive misses, procurement teams and supply chain managers are in need of Lithium to help treat their bipolar ordering behavior.

Southern California is the main entry point for imported goods in the U.S. Congestion around rail ramps and deteriorating service pushed shippers to trucking over the summer, but that trend is reversing as truckload costs soar out of the West.

Long-haul freight typically shrinks around the holiday season as fulfillment becomes a priority. The exact opposite is occurring this season, which may be indicative of shipper overcorrection.

Los cargadores siguen acumulando inventarios mientras el
consumo disminuye

The refrigerated truckload sector’s capacity recovery has stalled this fall while van has continued to stabilize. Here is the reason.

The trucking spot market is showing signs of softening in a somewhat unexpected time. Should shippers breathe a sigh of relief or is this the calm before the storm?

FreightWaves adds spot rate data and a new market analytics application inside its SONAR platform.

FreightWaves anuncia las tarifas spot TRAC en el nuevo
Market Dashboard de SONAR

The cost of diesel fuel, a main component in the cost of trucking, is climbing rapidly. This is a hidden factor that is helping keep spot rates elevated.

Contract rates for trucking have been rising since late last year and finally appear to be effecting compliance, but at what cost?

Las tasas de rechazo de licitaciones caen al punto más bajo
desde julio de 2020

Domestic intermodal container volume growth over the past two months may not signal a definitive end to the rail yard blues, but it is a positive sign for supply chain managers.

While shortages are being blamed for the bulk of the capacity shortages in transportation, the balance of the movement of goods has become incredibly lopsided.

Las tarifas al contado que se mueven hacia Los Ángeles han
disminuido en el último año, mientras que los carriles de
salida aumentan más del 20%.

Transportation rate growth has gone parabolic as shipping demand continues to strain networks. What are the fundamental reasons for this and how long will these conditions persist?

Used truck prices continued to hit new highs each of the last six months according to ACT Research. Prices will eventually become too much of a burden for small fleets and owner-operators to bear, if they haven’t already.

Congestion around the ports and drayage capacity issues are pushing shippers to use trucks more frequently while loaded container volumes dip. But shipping patterns are changing in more ways than just mode conversion.

Carriers are rejecting a disproportionate amount of long-haul freight heading east versus west. Does this dramatic imbalance have long-term implications?

Increasing the time between the request and requested pickup date is supposed to increase your odds of securing capacity. The aggregate data shows the opposite, but there is more than meets the eye.

FreightWaves SONAR data platform adds GLEC compliance to its carbon calculations.

Shippers are requesting as much capacity as ever from maritime shippers in August after slowing their pace through most of the summer. What should we take away from this?

June proved to be possibly the best month ever for Truckload Carriers Association members. Brokerage revenue growing alongside driver revenues helps paint a picture of success, but what is success for a carrier?

Rapidly changing shipping patterns and cost structures have made historical comparisons much more challenging for the freight market.

There are numerous reasons carrier compliance rates have been increasing over the past few months. An increase in short-haul freight may be making it easier for carriers to cover more freight.

Reefer capacity appears to be easing in the contracted space, but spot rates appear to be as touchy as ever.

Intermodal volumes are down while tender rejections are up. The rails may be missing a huge growth opportunity, but is there anything they can do about it?

The truckload spot market appears to have hit another peak, but quickly rising fuel costs make this appear much larger than it is.

Two of the nation’s largest centers for outbound freight demand saw record low levels of carrier acceptance rates this past week. This comes as the worst of the COVID capacity crunch appeared to be in the rearview mirror.

Capacity is retightening in California as demand surges once again. There are new patterns emerging that may lead to a battle for capacity between the two coasts.

FreightWaves improves its Supply Chain Intelligence product with two new visibility tools.

Shippers are desperately trying to find a way to get their freight into the U.S. The peak impacts to surface transportation may be in the future.

FreightWaves adds a new way to measure capacity changes in the domestic freight market to its SONAR platform.

Shippers may have had a little more success with contracted carriers in May, but it came at a high cost.

Shippers continue to struggle to find a reliable way to get freight into the U.S., which is causing major changes to surface transportation patterns.

FreightWaves adds exclusive new data set to an already extensive amount of reefer data.

In 2019 shippers crammed warehouses full of inventory coinciding with a stagnant freight market. As warehousing capacity tightens, could this contribute to the already tight transportation space?

The industrial sector is trying to recover faster than transportation can react. There are numerous factors limiting the economic recovery, illustrating that it is harder to turn production back on than off.

Many carriers expanded their fleets after the 2018 freight boom and were rewarded with an extremely challenging oversupplied market in 2019. The current pattern looks eerily similar to early 2018, but are they comparable?

Containers have been in short supply, exacerbated by gross trade imbalances between the U.S. and China. The surging flow of empties moving back to the West Coast implies the ships won’t be slowing anytime soon.

One of the results of the 2017-18 freight market boom was an increase in the cost of operating that held over into a slower 2019 when capacity became abundant. Costs are on the rise once again as carriers struggle to find drivers to capture market share.

Imports have fueled the domestic freight economy over the past year. That growth continues out of the traditional peak season with shippers booking maritime capacity in April. Could this translate to a record summer for trucking?

The relationship between personal consumption and trucking demand has strengthened even further as companies struggle to maintain inventory. This suggests a very active spring and summer for transportation providers.

Transportation rates continue to climb while service is at an all-time low. Shippers will have to be aggressive in devising new strategies to keep costs under control.

Import volumes are growing rapidly into secondary ports as shippers scramble to build inventory. What are some of the short- and long-term implications to domestic transportation providers?

Advancements in tender data science and paid market data now power SONAR SCI (Supply Chain Intelligence) Lane Acuity.  SONAR Lane Acuity provides lane-level insight into market stability and rate benchmarking. […]

Intermodal shipping is dominated by the largest shippers in the U.S. and operates on a more static network, which gains higher cost efficiency than trucking over longer-mileage runs.

The intermodal contract saving indices (IMCSI) show the percent savings of shipping via intermodal versus dry van truckload contract rates. To ensure comparability across modes, the calculation only compares truckload […]

Reefer capacity has tightened to all-time levels, pushing spot rates for produce moves to seasonal peaks ahead of schedule.

Though already present at a lane level in the Lane Signal application inside of the SONAR platform, FreightWaves has aggregated a national predictive rate value for van (FWS.USA) and reefer […]

The underlying fundamentals of the market are showing signs of moving slowly back toward a more stable scenario and spot rates may be unable to paint the full picture.

The latest round of winter weather hit transportation hard. How does this compare to other events?

The import boom appears far from over, and it will have implications long after this wave of unprecedented orders subsides.

Companies are paying significantly more for transportation than they were a year ago with many contracts yet to be implemented.

Although many questions remain for trucking in 2021, flatbed appears to be poised for a much stronger year.

Freight volumes have exploded out of southern California over the past two years. Is this pattern sustainable?

Consumer spending on goods drove the majority of the freight boom in 2020. Will this trend last in 2021?

Class 8 truck orders are surging signaling carriers are once again willing to invest in their fleets. Does this mean another overcorrection of capacity is in store?

Imports continue to pile up as shippers and carriers take time for the holidays. They may come back to a mess.

Transportation providers may spend January unclogging supply chains as warehouse capacity has become a precious commodity thanks to the continued influx of imports.

Spot rates continued to increase after the holiday period ended even as capacity returned to the market according to the Outbound Tender Reject Index.

Cold chain distribution shifts following the pandemic along with a much smaller supply of available base capacity has made the reefer carrier a much more valuable commodity this year.

Capacity is historically tight in trucking, pushing spot rates and profit margins higher. How much of this momentum will carriers be able to maintain?

Temperature-controlled equipment rates are already breaking records, could the vaccine distribution push them higher?

Trucking and rail volumes remain elevated while the imports fade. Is this is beginning of the end of the 2020 freight boom?

The election results show just how divided the nation is politically and COVID cases are back on the rise. Shipping activity appears to be insulated from any negative effects at the moment, but for how long?

Record trucking volumes along with shrinking refinery production could make fuel prices an overlooked threat to carrier margins and shipping costs into 2021.

Anthony and Zach bring on Jon Bradford of Dynamo, a venture capital firm specializing in early stage investments, to discuss what effect 2020 has had on investment trends and sentiment in the supply chain.

Import volumes continue to fuel the surface transportation boom. Will it last into 2021?

Anthony and Zach discuss the increasing concerns over the driver shortage and how presidential elections influence the economy.