Freight brokers see more hot loads as carriers manage yield
Story by: @ FreightWaves
Freight brokers said in interviews this week that sustained higher volumes are now making an impact on their businesses as revenue per load and margin per load increase. Brokers reported that more ‘hot loads,’ or shipments tendered with little lead time because they have been rejected by primary carriers, are hitting their boards.
While spot rates have not come up appreciably, the time to cover a load has grown longer incrementally. William Kerr, president of Chicago-based Edge Logistics, said that at the market’s loosest point earlier in the summer, it took his brokers an average of only nine minutes to cover a load, but now his build-to-cover times have stretched to approximately 15 to 17 minutes.
“Service failures this week have been higher and shippers have been coming back to us to ensure deliveries are met,” said Patrick Draut, senior vice president of business intelligence at Chicago-based K&L Freight.
“Some shippers we’ve been begging for freight all year have started to come around,” Kerr added.
An executive at Swift Logistics (NYSE: KNX) said he’s seeing the same thing in Swift’s network, and that load counts got “a good pop” this week.
On a year-over-year basis, national truckload volumes are up 3.81% (OTVIY.USA), and that positive level has been sustained now since the end of July.
Those numbers track with the gradual growth that Matt Pyatt, chief executive officer at Austin-based Arrive Logistics, reported.
“Steady, but nothing crazy,” Pyatt said. “We grew load per day volume at a steady rate in September and are forecasting approximately the same growth in October.”
Dry van spot rates, on the other hand, have remained flat, except for a few lanes. According to the article at freightwaves.com and its author
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Chart: FreightWaves SONAR
Source and credits: freightwaves.com / / iTrucker / Mario Pawlowski
