January Cold Snap Leads to Spot-Market Surge

A weather-related bump in demand for truckload capacity pushed spot freight volumes to all-time highs for January. Demand for trucks on the spot market pushed broker-to-carrier rates higher, with the reefer rate jumping 10 cents from December to $2.57 a mile in January. The flatbed rate rose 6 cents to $2.47 a mile. Year over year, average spot rates were down 24 cents for vans, 21 cents for reefers and 29 cents for flatbeds. Read more here.