DAT SOLUTIONS: Flatbeds send spot market volumes higher

Spot market activity on DAT MembersEdge kept on building last week as the number of load posts increased 3 percent and truck posts rose 4 percent. National van and reefer load-to-truck ratios dipped while the flatbed load-to-truck ratio exceeded 100 for the fifth straight week.

Rates, however, didn’t move much:

• Van: $2.16 per mile, no change
• Flatbed: $2.64 per mile, up a penny
• Reefer: $2.42 per mile, no change

These rates include a fuel surcharge portion. The national average price rose 2 cents to $3.16 per gallon last week. Looking back at April, spot rates for the month were all higher compared to March national averages. The average April van rate is up 1 cent, the reefer rate is 2 cents higher, and the flatbed rate is up 12 cents.

Van overview
Van load posts declined 2 percent last week while truck posts increased 3 percent. That caused the van load-to-truck ratio to dip 5 percent to 6.1 loads per truck. While the national average van rate held steady, prices on many of the top 100 van lanes fell last week. The drops could be a temporary blip because volumes are picking up, which should start to soak up some of the excess capacity on the spot market lately.

Hot van markets
As far a pricing is concerned, there weren’t a lot of big gains on the top 100 lanes, though rates are generally higher than they were a month ago.

Los Angeles was the No. 2 market for van volume last week, but the average rate of $2.35 per mile was up just 1 cent. Seattle was up 3 cents to $1.60 per mile on a 26.6 percent volume increase.

Several bellwether van lanes reflected weaker rates:

• Columbus, Ohio, to Buffalo – $3.78 per mile, down 30 cents but still one of the highest paying lanes into the Northeast
• Philadelphia to Boston – $3.95 per mile, down 9 cents
• Atlanta to Lakeland, Fla. – $3.02 per mile, unchanged although the return was up 4 cents to $1.23 per mile

Flatbed overview
Nationally, flatbed load posts increased 6 percent while truck posts increased less than 1 percent. The load-to-truck ratio to increase 6 percent to 108 loads per truck as a result.

Hot flatbed markets
Cleveland, Las Vegas, Jacksonville, and Fort Worth joined Houston as volume leaders last week. The average outbound rate last week in Phoenix was just $1.79 per mile, making it the only major flatbed market with sub-$2 rates. Others to watch:

• Memphis, $3.54 per mile, up 16 cents
• Fort Worth, $2.38 per mile, up 9 cents
• Houston, $3.03 per mile, unchanged
• Las Vegas, $2.89 per mile, up 19 cents

Reefer overview
Reefer load posts held steady while truck posts increased 2 percent. That caused the national load-to-truck ratio for reefers to decline 2 percent, from 8.4 to 8.2 loads per truck. Reefer volumes are beginning to build, however, especially in the Miami and Savannah markets.

Tri-haul of the week: Memphis-Allentown-Quincy-Memphis
Van rates going into the Northeast have been solid but coming out, not so much. For example, the long-haul van lane from Memphis to Allentown, Pa., is a 1,000-mile trip that averaged $2.76 per mile last week, but the trip back from Allentown paid around $1.41 per mile.

Instead of heading straight back to Memphis, a load from Allentown to Quincy, Ill., north of St. Louis, paid an average of $1.86 last week while loads from Quincy to Memphis paid $2.81 per mile. Altogether, the tri-haul trip adds about 360 miles, not counting deadhead, but would have boosted your rate per loaded mile from $2.09 to $2.41. You would have added a day but added about $1,500 in revenue.

Rates are derived from DAT RateView, which provides real-time reports on prevailing spot market and contract rates, as well as historical rate and capacity trends. All reported rates include fuel surcharges.

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