Cold beers, grilled meat, guacamole and fireworks are part of many Fourth of July parties, and San Antonio is benefitting from inbound shipments as the national holiday approaches.
The San Antonio market has strengthened over the past seven days with outbound volumes increasing 11.5 percent. The increase stems from long-haul van rejections as both van (SONAR: VTRI.SAT) and long-haul (SONAR: LTRI.SAT) rejection rates have surged over the past several days. This information comes from the FreightWaves SONAR platform.
The Van Tender Rejection Index increased from 6.37 percent last week to 21.66 percent on July 1. The Long-haul Tender Reject Index, which measures carriers willing to accept loads tendered under contract terms, moved from 6.52 percent to 27.96 percent over the same time.
“It’s definitely normal for volume to increase before holiday weekends,” said Matt Silver, chief executive officer of Chicago-based Forager Logistics. “If you look at freight produced in Mexico, avocados and beer are both common exports that increase significantly in the summer, especially before the Fourth of July. Lot of beer and guacamole consumed during the 4th.”
Americans plan to spend $1.6 billion on beer and wine alone, out of the total $6.9 billion on food, according to WalletHub’s 4th of July survey. Last year, the Fourth of July also saw $53 million in avocado sales, according to the Hass Avocado Board.
Fr8Hub chief executive officer Ohad Axelrod agreed with Silver, noting that shipments of produce and beer typically increase in the summertime.
“It also could be some seasonal produce, probably beers, you see a lot of carriers moving seasonal stuff before certain holidays,” Axelrod said.
San Antonio is still a relatively weak backhaul market with a Headhaul Index (HAUL.SAT) value of -11.29, but that is a marked improvement from the -25 it averaged most of last week.