Spot van and reefer rates improve

[Mike]

It took a while, but spot rates at least were pointing the right direction last week. Better weather combined with a 4% increase in the number of available loads on DAT MembersEdge pushed spot van and reefer rates higher.

National average spot rates through May 5

• Van: $1.82 per mile, 1 cent above the April average.
• Refrigerated: $2.18 per mile, 3 cents higher than April.
• Flatbed: $2.33 per mile, 1 cent lower

The price of fuel was $3.17 per gallon as a national average, nearly unchanged from the previous week.

DAT Solutions: Spot van and reefer rates improve

The Business Magazine for Professional Truckers

www.landlinemag.com

 

[Mike]

Oddly enough, last week seemed tougher than usual for me to find any decent rates. Guess I'm doing it wrong, LOL

 

[mndriver]

We've got $6/ mile load on the trucks this week.

Things are decent enough I got rid of the dry van and replaced it with a second stepdeck.

 

[Mike]

Took a risk this week out of Topeka and brought a load down to Beaumont, TX. It was the only thing I could get ahold of that beat the $2.00 floor I am still determined to stay above. Load was set to deliver on Friday morning, but i got loaded quickly, and showed up today at lunch time. They offloaded me and I was gone from there within an hour. It was some heavy steel containers I picked up from the Goodyear plant.

I chalk the load above up to Uber making a mistake. It's a 698 mile run, but they had it listed as 825 or something close to that, and posted it at $1420.

While waiting out the rain to get inside for a shower at the Petro, a load popped up on the JB Hunt 360 board going right back to the Goodyear plant in Topeka. Picks up 50 miles from here tomorrow, and delivers Sunday morning. This one pays $1600. I had called on a couple other loads going to Topeka, and couldn't get the brokers to go above $1150, which was right in line with the 15 day rate average. Just so happens, the load to truck ratio was heavily in my favor down here, and I think JB realized it and wanted to get their stuff covered ASAP.

Working on a load now to deliver Monday morning in Iowa, but still $100 or so apart on the rate