Article courtesy of TopMark Funding.
We at TopMark Funding have not been giving you the statistics for average freight rates lately, as we have been writing extensively about more immediate topics such as the Coronavirus. Now that it appears the pandemic is reaching the declining end of the curve, we can get back into the swing of things for normal writing.
Coronavirus may be on its way out the door, but its impact on the trucking industry is still felt: freight rates in April were at their lowest for the year to date, even lower than February, which is historically the lowest point in the year.
The Graphs
Before looking at the graphs, here are some things to consider:
- Color coding will now follow the DAT’s color code: red for dry van, green for flatbed, blue for reefer.
- Graphs will trail 37 months. This time frame allows you to see three years of trucking rates and the three previous years of the current month to see how it stacks to today.
- For data that is hard to find or not posted to DAT altogether, we use linear averaging to approximate the monthly rate. For example, July 2018 for reefer was determined by averaging the June and August 2018 rates.
- The DAT revises and corrects its previous monthly rates as it gets new information. These rates will be updated accordingly each month.
Dry Van March: $1.87
Dry Van April: $1.67
Flatbed March: $2.19
Flatbed April: $1.95
Reefer March: $2.23
Reefer April: $1.99
