The highlights from Wednesday’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
The markets in the Rocky Mountain West can be very hit or miss and volatile. The smaller dry van markets, such as Twin Falls, Idaho, were seeing outbound tender rejection rates almost up to 10% leading into the week of the Fourth of July.
Billings, Montana, experienced volume levels in June that it hadn’t seen since January (before national freight volumes began to drop) and is one of the only markets nationally that still have a positive weekly change in outbound tender volumes after the holiday — albeit only a 1.4% increase. But hey, we’ll take it.
The largest market in the region is Denver.
The Outbound Tender Volume Index in Denver had increased to 215 leading into the holiday weekend. Outbound tender rejections had also remained above 7.5% until the expected drop in volume during and after the holiday. Rejections now sit at 6% overall — the market’s lowest point since April 2020.
Along with the decrease in rejection rates, tender lead times have risen significantly to 3.5 days, signifying that shippers expect ongoing network disruptions after the holiday. As capacity loosens, shippers will not need to continue to extend their lead times further.
Watch: Carrier update
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: Denver to Allentown, Pennsylvania
Spot market rates in this lane have dipped 3 cents since the holiday weekend but remain above $2 a mile. Currently paying $2.07 a mile (86 cents less than the national average) and with a 1,722-mile length of haul, this lane will place carriers into a market that provides a probable chance of security when booking a load on the way out.
With the holiday dip in volumes and rejections, downward pressure will begin to be applied to spot market rates out of Denver. The momentary softening of the Denver market will cause brokers to push rates down, but carriers should remain strong in order to keep rates where they are until volumes begin to rise again.
In Allentown, outbound tender rejections were up to 10% until the Fourth of July. Rejections have since dropped slightly but remain strong at 9.8%.
The Outbound Tender Volume Index for Allentown has remained above 300 even after the holiday dip.
With rejections and volumes where they are, this will loosen capacity within the market and begin to push rates in favor of the shippers.