Spot market trends

During the month of August, noteworthy trends in terms of spot market capacity include a rise of 10 percent over capacity rates seen in the month of July. While spot market capacities increased, spot market loads actually dropped by 7.1 percent compared to rates from July of 2018.

When compared to the previous year statistics from August of 2017, both spot market loads and spot market capacities increased significantly. Spot market loads increased by 27 percent in August of 2018 as compared to August of 2017. Spot market capacities rose a total of 18 percent in August of 2018 as compared to August of 2017. It remains to be seen whether these rates will continue to show such a significant rise over figure from the previous September next month. 

Van, flatbed, and reefer rates

In the van market, drops were seen in both van load-to-truck rates and van spot rates in comparison to rates from the previous month. However, van load-to-truck and van spot rates rose considerably this past August over figures recorded from August of 2017. Van load-to-truck rates rose by 29 percent and van spot rates rose by 20 percent in August of 2018 as compared to August of 2017.

There was a significant drop in flatbed load-to-truck rates in this past August as compared to this past July. The flatbed load-to-truck rate dipped by 36 percent between these two months. When compared to flatbed rates from July of 2018, the load-to-truck rate dropped only slightly by 0.8 percent. The flatbed spot rate rose a total of 21 percent in August of 2018 as compared to the figure from July of 2017. 

When it comes to reefer rates, there was not a lot of change seen in August as opposed to the month of July. The reefer load-to-truck rate only changed by rising 1.4 percent in August over July. The reefer spot rates after dropped slightly in August by a total of 3.9 percent. At the same time, there was a large change seen in reefer spot rates in August of 2018 as compared to July of 2018. Reefer spot rates rose by 20 percent in comparison across these two months.

Fuel price rates

Fuel prices actually dropped slightly in August as compared to the previous month. Fuel prices went down by a total of 0.5 percent over this period. Yet in comparison to the previous year, fuel prices have gone up considerably by rising by a total of 24 percent.