For November, we wrote how flatbed rates had their average per-mile reduced while the other two forms of freight increased. Poetically, it is now the refrigerated trailer to have its turn to reduce in rate.
The Data
While the numbers do not increase with the same intensity as they did in the middle of 2020, they do increase enough to fairly say that December had higher rates than November did.
Flatbeds in particular tell an interesting story. In November they had dropped a penny per mile. This last month it not only recovered that lost penny, but also went up another two cents to have, on average, a higher rate per mile than dry vans, which flatbed hauling was tied with for November.
Now that the holiday season is over, it is hard to say what the trucking rates will do next. This is typically the “slow season” for trucking, but these recent months have been anything but ordinary. For an example of what might happen, the demand for Moderna and Pfizer vaccines could make reefer rates still climb, despite Christmas being in the rearview window. Whatever the case, the trucking rates per mile are far ahead of their previous year’s numbers, which was back when coronavirus was just a footnote in the newspaper.
