March 2018 Van, Flatbed and Reefer Rate Trends

The last few weeks of March saw more demand from shippers than trucks on the spot truckload freight market.

More demand from shippers than trucks meant that the load-to-truck ratios and rates were higher than expected at the close of the first quarter. 

Another interesting trend defied expectations at the close of the quarter: truck capacity fell by 3.1 percent as the number of loads went up 3.5 percent last month. 

March Van, Flatbed and Reefer Ratios 

The last week of March saw a big climb in the number of available loads per truck with flatbeds. The flatbed ratio leaped up from about 87 the third week of March to 101.5 in the last week of the month. 

Subtle changes in cost/mile 

The van ratio went from 6.9 to 7.2 while the reefer ratio went from 10.5 to 10.4, a subtle change to be sure.

Minor changes marked the cost of vans per mile, as the rate moved from $2.13 to $2.15 and flatbeds changed by only a penny up to $2.53. 

Reefers actually stayed at the same rate of $2.40/mile for the fifth week in a row. Fuel surcharges are included in these numbers, by the way. 

Increase in load volumes 

Flatbeds went up 5.6 percent in load volume last month whereas freight is a more complicated story. Freight availability shot up 7.0 percent but freight capacity actually went down 7.6 percent, so that's a story to keep an eye on.

The flatbed load-to-truck ratio went up throughout March, which was no surprise to insiders who noted the November low of that ratio. 

Available van loads went up a single percent over March while truck posts went down about three percent over that same period. The national average van rate, though, went up for the fifth week in a row.