Freight Futures contracts to watch today: Spot National Contract
Trucking Freight Futures continued their slow descent lower this week with another mostly down session. The spot National contract (FUT.VNU202002) was fractionally lower for the third consecutive session and ended at $1.416/mile. The continuous spot price for the National contract (FUTC1.VNU) is down nearly 8% since the start of 2020 and the forward curve (FWD.VNU) indicates a weak rate environment throughout the spring. The East regional contract (FUT.VEU202002) also closed down a fraction to $1.581 after being unchanged for the two previous sessions. Both the West regional (FUT.VWU202002) and South regional (FUT.VSU202002) contracts settled 0.2% lower to $1.460 and $1.208, respectively.
In the East, the CHI to ATL contract (FUT.VCA202002) once again finished unchanged at $1.959 as did the PHL to CHI contract (FUT.VPC202002), which held firm at $1.131. The ATL to PHL contract (FUT.VAP202002) slipped 0.12% to finish at $1.654. It was almost a mirror finish from yesterday in the West and South. The LAX to SEA contract (FUT.VLS202002) in the West dropped 0.2% to $1.983 while the SEA to LAX contract (FUT.VSL202002) slid 0.32% to $0.936. In the South, the LAX to DAL contract (FUT.VLD202002) fell 0.3% to $1.332 and the DAL to LAX contract (FUT.VDL202002) once again held steady at $1.084, still sitting $0.12 above where its January predecessor (FUT.VDL202001) went off the board.
