MEMPHIS — US truckload pricing is no longer rising but dropping. Truckload contract rates will fall 5 percent on average over the course of the first half, Matt Harding, vice president of Chainalytics, said at the Transportation & Logistics Council’s (T&LC) annual conference here Tuesday. “We’re seeing extremely soft conditions” in March, following a soft first quarter, he said.
The flip in the market shippers have been waiting for after being pummeled in 2018 is finally here, but that doesn’t mean trucking is suddenly cheap. “We saw truckload rates rise 10 percent in each of the past two years,” said Harding, who heads Chainalytics’ Freight Market Intelligence Consortium. That means truckload rates are only 5 percent “off the peak,” he said.
“Contract rates are dropping in all modes; we’re expecting a 5 percent reduction in contract rates in 2019[‘s] first half, but that’s on top of a 20 percent increase over two years,” Harding said. Spot market rates are down about 20 percent year over year, he said, and they’re pulling contract rates lower in their wake. “It’s a dynamic market. No one has control over rates.”
This was welcome news to shippers attending the 45th annual T&LC conference, many of whom anecdotally reported significant decreases in rates from last year’s peak. Some said they achieved savings by turning to third-party logistics companies and the truckload spot market. Others said trucking partners offered to lower rates they raised substantially a year ago.
