E-Brief -- 33 Percent Increase in Spot Freight Availability Means Good News for Truckers

PORTLAND, Ore.--(EON: Enhanced Online News)--A trend toward improved spot freight availability accelerated in June, with a 33 percent increase in loads, according to TransCore’s Freight Index. This followed a 20 percent increase in spot freight availability in May. Improvement for both months outpaced the typical seasonal increase for spot freight of up to 12 percent month over month.

Availability on the spot market also outperformed the modest 3.2 percent increase in May’s Seasonally Adjusted Freight Tonnage Index, as reported by American Trucking Association.

However, compared to the June 2008 spot freight market, which boasted the highest freight volume for any single month in recent years, this June’s spot freight availability declined by 58 percent. But year-over-year comparisons are improving too. May’s spot freight availability was 65 percent lower than that for May 2008; and April’s was 69 percent lower than that for April 2008.

Although this year’s freight volume has not yet returned to a “normal” level, availability appears to be improving at a consistent, better-than-seasonal rate.

On TransCore’s DAT Network, truck freight brokers and carriers across North America list more than 50 million truck loads and Class 8 commercial trucks of various equipment types (vans, reefers, flatbeds, et al.) per year, which can be accessed through 3sixty Freight Match Power, 3sixty Freight Match Express, and TruckersEdge.net. TransCore’s Freight Index measures traffic on the DAT Network; its high volume makes it representative of the ups and downs in U.S. spot market freight movement.

About TransCore Freight Business Services

TransCore provides a full line of commercial freight services, comprising a complete line of loadboard products for brokers, shippers, and truckers. This includes truckload rate indices for contract markets, automated carrier insurance e-certificates and DOT authority monitoring, and related services. TransCore also provides tracking and in-cab communications solutions, logistics software used by more freight brokers than any other broker TMS, distribution and intermodal services, and a variety of fleet compliance services for tax reporting, titling, and driver services.