BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — DAT One load posts totaled 2.7 million for the week of Aug. 16-22, up 3% from the prior week.
“Equipment posts totaled 175,327, down 3%,” DAT Freight & Analytics said. “National average linehaul rates eased for all three equipment types, with the van rate down 4 cents. The EIA’s national average on-highway diesel price used in this week’s fuel surcharge calculation was $5.257 a gallon (week ending Aug. 10), down 9.1 cents (1.7%) from $5.348 the week before.”
7-Day Average Broker-to-Carrier Spot Rates (Linehaul + Fuel Surcharge)
â–¼ Van: $2.88 per mile, down 5 cents
â–¼ Reefer: $3.36 per mile, down 2 cents
â–¼ Flatbed: $3.50 per mile, down 4 cents
“Freight went up, trucks went down and rates still eased,” said Dean Croke, industry analyst, DAT. “Load posts rose 3% while equipment posts fell 3%, and all three linehaul rates still came down. Most major origin markets softened as summer volumes tailed off. The Upper Atlantic was the exception, the only region to hold firm across all three equipment types, up 2% for dry van, 2% for reefer and 4% for flatbed.”
Dry Van: Load Posts Held Flat for a Third Straight Week while Trucks Kept Pulling Back
— Loads: 1,177,669, essentially flat
â–¼ Trucks: 119,202, down 2%
â–¼ Linehaul rate: $2.21 per mile, down 4 cents
â–² Load-to-truck ratio: 9.9, up from 9.6 the prior week
“Van demand has flattened,” Croke said. “Van load posts have come in within about 500 of each other for three consecutive weeks, at roughly 1.2 million. Steady demand against a shrinking truck count pushed the van ratio to 9.9, a high for Week 34 and well clear of the 6.4 set during the 2021 boom.”
Reefer: Harvest Freight Pushed Load Posts Up Sharply
â–² Loads: 697,797, up 11%
â–¼ Trucks: 33,076, down 5%
— Linehaul rate: $2.63 per mile, essentially flat
â–² Load-to-truck ratio: 21.1, up from 18.0 the prior week
“Reefer was the story of the week,” Croke said. “Load posts jumped 11% while truck posts fell 5%, lifting the reefer load-to-truck ratio to 21.1 from 18.0. That’s double the 10.4 posted the same week last year and the highest Week 34 reefer load-to-truck ratio on record. The Great Lakes at $3.15 a mile and the Upper Midwest at $3.13 led all reefer-origin regions.”
Flatbed: Load Posts Gained Ground and Truck Posts Fell Again
â–² Loads: 832,331, up 3%
â–¼ Trucks: 23,049, down 5%
â–¼ Linehaul rate: $2.70 per mile, down 2 cents
â–² Load-to-truck ratio: 36.1, up from 33.3 the prior week
“Capacity keeps shrinking,” Croke said. “Truck posts are down nearly 30% year over year across the three equipment types. At 175,327, total equipment posts were the lowest yet for Week 34. DAT iQ’s forecast points to a slow drift, not a drop. The 35-day DAT iQ RateCast forecast puts van linehaul at $2.19 a mile in late September, reefer at $2.59, and flatbed at $2.65. That’s 54, 58, and 61 cents above where the same rates sat a year ago. The van forecast carries the widest uncertainty band of the three, at about 7 cents either way.”
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
