Dry van spot rates climb to $2.23 a mile as load-to-truck ratio nears 11
DAT says national dry van linehaul rates rose 3 cents last week and are 55 cents above a year ago. Truck posts fell 5.7% while load posts jumped 8.4%.
Spot dry van rates kept climbing at the end of October, as month-end freight met a shrinking pool of trucks.
The national dry van spot linehaul rate, not counting fuel, averaged $2.23 a mile last week, according to DAT's weekly dry van report. That is up 3 cents, or 1.3%, from the week before.
Far above last year
The rate is 55 cents, or 32.6%, higher than the same week a year ago. It is also 42 cents above DAT's nine-year seasonal average of $1.81 for this week, a gap of 22.9%.
DAT forecasts the national rate at $2.26 a mile 35 days out, with a range of $2.19 to $2.33.
More loads, fewer trucks
Load posts on DAT's network rose 8.4% week over week. Truck posts fell 5.7%.
That pushed the dry van load-to-truck ratio to 10.93 from 9.51. A year ago it was 6.37, when there were 35.2% more trucks posted.
Compared with a year ago, load posts are up 26.8% and truck posts are down 26.1%. DAT points to retailers restocking ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
Region by region
The ten largest origin markets handled 87.9% of dry van loads in the week ending Oct. 31. Average spot rates out of each:
| Origin region | Rate per mile | |---|---| | California | $2.62 | | Great Lakes | $2.51 | | Ohio River | $2.49 | | Upper Atlantic | $2.20 | | Lower Midwest | $2.17 | | Lower Atlantic | $2.15 | | Southeast | $2.01 | | Carolinas | $1.98 | | South Central | $1.84 | | Florida-South Georgia | $1.34 |
California had the biggest weekly gain, up 4 cents. The Lower Atlantic had the biggest drop, down 8 cents.
DAT's ten "bellwether" states, which account for 35.6% of outbound dry van volume, averaged $2.91 a mile. That is down 4 cents from the week before but up 76 cents, or 35.5%, from a year ago.