Anyone that has been involved in sourcing freight has heard of the infamous ‘produce season” that hits the freight market with a force in April-June. Much of the nation’s Mediterranean style produce – lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower – and many other fruits and vegetables are grown in California and Arizona. During the winter, harvest areas move due to various laws and healthy farming practices before returning in the spring.
The early spring harvests can have a significant impact to capacity in the entire country, especially when combined with other freight market events. If the harvest is delayed, as it was in 2017, it can impact rates all over the country. In June 2017 there was a rush to the West coast just as peak season for the freight market was hitting. Carriers abandoned lower paying contracted freight to service the perishable goods, increasing the cost of transportation significantly. It was the first of several events that year that lead to carriers taking the biggest annual rate increases in over a decade.
Agricultural freight movements are not limited to spring and summer, they happen all year and can impact the freight market locally at any given time.
For these reasons, FreightWaves has decided to put the average weekly total truckload price as for agricultural loads as reported by the USDA in SONAR. These rates are expressed as a total all-inclusive flat rate.
All the rates will be organized by typing AGRATE then a “.” then the specific lane. For example, the average weekly agricultural truckload rate for freight moving from the Salinas valley near San Francisco to the Dallas area would be found by typing “AGRATE.SFODAL.”
Warehouse/Real Estate
In addition to the agricultural truckload rates, FreightWaves has also added additional warehousing and real estate data. With the growing demand for warehouse space and real estate as more supply chains move to a regional distribution network, real estate costs are becoming increasingly important in logistics management. Several new metrics have been added to help companies and individuals measure how hot or cold a market is when deciding to purchase new warehouse or retail space. There are also new metrics that measure how fast each market is growing or declining, letting users know whether it is a good decision to open in a market or not. The following data has been added:
Absorption Index Retail/Warehouse (ABSIRET/ABSIWH) – Change in occupied retail/warehouse units per total occupied retail/warehouse stock – Basically the higher this number goes, the higher the rate of absorption of new retail and warehouse space, the demand for space is higher.
Real Estate Completions Retail/Warehouse (COMPLRET/COMPLWH) – Square feet of new retail/warehouse space added to inventory
Households (HH) – Occupied housing units in each market
Average Household Income (HHINC) – Average household income in each market
Occupied Stock Retail/Warehouse (OCCRET/OCCWH) – Occupied amount of inventory of retail/warehouse space at quarter end
Gross Revenue Retail/Warehouse (REVRET/REVWH) – Sum of effective rent revenue less concessions and credit loss for retail/warehouse space
Vacant Stock Retail/Warehouse (VACRET/VACWH) – Amount of available inventory of retail/warehouse space at quarter end in units
Real Estate Inventory Warehouse (WHSQFT) – Total square feet of warehouse inventory