DAT Reports 2-Year High Spot Rates

Every once in a while, an article comes out from some journalist somewhere who mentions that the silver lining of inflation is higher wages. Anyone with a basic understanding in economics knows this is fallacious: what good are higher wages if everything costs more? So when DAT Freight & Analytics mentions that spot rates for truck hauling are at the highest they have been in two years, you may be skeptical to say that is due to recent fuel price increases due to conflict in Iran. While you would be partially correct, there is a real silver lining here where trucking companies and its drivers benefit immensely.

Details

In the past four weeks since this article’s publishing (March 23rd), diesel prices have increased 5%. With that as our floor, it is safe to assume any increase beyond 5% is due to factors beyond increases in fuel prices.

DAT reports the following numbers for monthly changes for all three rates:

• Dry van hauling increased 11 cents per mile to $2.52 per mile. Approximately a 4.5% increase, slightly less than the cost of diesel.
• Reefer increased 9 cents per mile to $2.97 per mile, a 3% increase.

So far the changes are lower than the change in diesel prices, but flatbed begets an outlier:

• Flatbed hauling reports a 37 cent increase to $3.09 per mile, a 13% increase.

DAT reports that this is the single largest increase that flatbed has seen in over a decade. Additionally, flatbed averages have outpaced reefer averages, a phenomenon not seen since 2022.

Conclusion

So what does all of this mean? While dry van and reefer hauling are absorbing some of the increases in diesel fuel prices, flatbed hauling is having a boon as the rate of change is more than double that of the fuel increase, and roughly triple-to-quadruple that of its dry van and reefer brethren.

It will be interesting to see how long flatbed keeps its place as the top dog in the trucking industry, as demand for goods shipped by flatbed continues to soar far beyond the growing demand for petroleum products.

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