The highlights from Friday’s SONAR reports are below. For more information on SONAR — the fastest freight-forecasting platform in the industry — or to request a demo, click here. Also, be sure to check out the latest SONAR update, TRAC — the freshest spot rate data in the industry.
Market watch
Ontario, California
Outbound volumes in Ontario are making a recovery from a 12.3% drop in the first week of August. Los Angeles and Ontario are essentially the heartbeat of freight moving into the rest of the country, and the recent increase placed Ontario back on top of the mountain with a 4% market share, recovering from the lowest that it had been in the past 90 days.
The Outbound Tender Volume Index for Ontario is up 8.7% in the past eight days, but capacity is still flooding the market, keeping rejection rates some of the lowest in the country at 2.2%.
Greenville, South Carolina
On the East Coast, outbound volumes in Greenville came out swinging at the start of August but don’t look like they will finish strong.
Since Aug. 5, the Outbound Tender Volume Index has dropped 14.4% and is still falling. Inbound freight volumes are ticking down this month as well, falling 7.2% since Aug. 1.
The decrease in both inbound and outbound tender volumes pushed Greenville’s Headhaul Index down 61%, to an even 10.
The drops in flows of both volumes present significantly fewer loads for carriers to choose from. This softening of capacity has resulted in a 260-basis-point drop in the Outbound Tender Reject Index since Aug. 10 to 5.3%.
Syracuse, New York
Up the coast in what I like to call “basketball country,” outbound tender volumes have been on a steady rise all month. Since Aug. 4, the Outbound Tender Volume Index in Syracuse is up 36% and still climbing.
Inbound tender volumes are quite flat by comparison, rising 7.9% since Aug. 4 and only exceeding outbound tender volumes by 5.2%. The increasing outbound tender volumes have generated a shift in Syracuse’s Headhaul Index, up now 82% since Aug. 13, to minus 2.83.
The increase of outbound tender volumes is starting to tighten capacity. Rejection rates are up 90 bps to a respectable 3.7%, indicating that there is less inbound capacity.
NTI as a point of reference
The National Truckload Index is a daily look at how spot rates in specific lanes hold up in comparison to the national average, giving carriers and brokers an idea of which lanes to gravitate toward or avoid.
Lane to watch: Ontario to Fort Worth, Texas
Spot market rates from Ontario to Fort Worth are down 18 cents from the start of the month but remain elevated for a lane that is more than 1,200 miles. At $2.48 a mile, it is 22 cents below the national average.
The Outbound Tender Volume Index for Fort Worth is up 16.3% since Aug. 16. Both markets have seen an increase in outbound traffic, which presents a probable outcome of staying loaded and rolling.
