DAT News
Planning Your Week? Try These 5 Cities for Freight
Looking to plan your week? There are more hot markets to choose from this week. Part of that is thanks to produce harvests in the Southeast and California, which tie up trucks that used to compete for van and reefer loads.
Below are your best bets for finding loads fast on DAT Load Boards this week. All the cities listed below are in the top 5 for load posts and have load-to-truck ratios that are above the national average for that equipment type, which means your truck is in higher demand in each of these places.
VANS
National load-to-truck ratio: 1.6 van loads available per truck
The national average spot market van rates finally rose last week. Rates held steady for weeks, even though load posts had been going up at a pretty steady clip. Produce season is also keeping a lot more reefer trucks busy, which helps vans, too. That’s because carriers with reefers sometimes compete for van loads when there aren’t as many reefer loads to go around.
REEFERS
National load-to-truck ratio: 3.4 reefer loads per truck
Notice that Florida isn’t on this list any more. Reefer volumes are slipping in Lakeland and Miami, and those markets aren’t short on trucks now. If you’re in the Southeast, Georgia produce is still going strong. Otherwise, a lot of reefer activity has shifted to the West.
FLATBED
National load-to-truck ratio: 14.7 flatbed loads per truck
Flatbed rates have been trending up in the big Texas markets for the past month, but Houston is the one to make the top 5 for load posts. Places like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Raleigh are usually busier this time of year, but they’ve had a quiet spring.
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