Freight Futures lane to watch today: Seattle, WA to Los Angeles, CA (VSL)
Though still relatively quiet, activity in the Trucking Freight Futures markets began to pick up on Wednesday as concerns of the impacts of coronavirus continue to weigh. The spot National contract (FUT.VWU202002) continued to hold firm at $1.393/mile, as it has for the last week. Also remaining unchanged was the East regional contract (FUT.VEU202002), which settled at $1.560. The West regional contract (FUT.VWU202002) ended the day 0.14% lower to $1.430, while the South regional contract (FUT.VSU202002) finished higher by 0.17% and closed at $1.190.
In the East, both the CHI to ATL (FUT.VCA202002) and PHL to CHI (FUT.VPC202002) contracts were unchanged for the session, where they remained at $1.911 and $1.105, respectively. The ATL to PHL contract (FUT.VAP202002), which has been inching higher for most of this month, slipped a fraction to $1.664. The biggest mover today was in the West, where the SEA to LAX contract (FUT.VSL202002) fell 0.44% to $0.909 and pushed the West region lower. The spot month price for the lane (FUTC1.VSL) has dropped 27.3% since peaking at $1.25 at the end of December 2019 and the forward curve (FWD.VSL) suggests another 13.2% slide lower to $0.78 by the end of June 2020. The LAX to SEA contract (FUT.VLS202002) was flat on the day and settled at $1.950. In the South, the LAX to DAL contract (FUT.VLD202002) eked out a 0.15% gain for the day to $1.319, while the DAL to LAX contract (FUT.VDL202002) stayed steady at $1.060.
