While a series of winter storms have impacted freight from coast to coast, with highway closures surrounding some major freight markets, the soft marketplace continues to show a surplus of capacity nationwide. According to FreightWaves, national tender rejections have remained stagnant, while tender volumes have decreased 3.5%. Tender Rejection Index for Shippers Monday, January 17…
Category: Shippers
Weekly Freight Roundup: Carriers Are Repositioning Themselves
After steady growth over the last few weeks, the national outbound volume index gains have started to slow. Historically, the U.S. freight market experiences a plateau heading into the end of January, as the backlog of shipments that sat during the holidays is depleted and Chinese New Year approaches. Even with the increase in shipments,…
Weekly Freight Roundup: Prepping for The Year of the Pig
In the first full week of the new year, volumes across the country are gaining traction, with national volume up 69% since the start of the year. It typically takes a week for volume to come back into the network after the holidays, and it picks up steam well into January. It should come as…
Weekly Freight Roundup: Local Capacity Aplenty
As we head into the Christmas holiday, national freight volume remains low. The market has been trending down since November, and hasn’t seen the characteristic holiday freight increase that was expected. Carrier Capacity Lowers Tender Rejection Rates Capacity is plentiful in most regions, with tender rejections very low. In the week before Christmas in…
FreightWaves: December Market Trends
Thanks to all who attended FreightWaves’ December monthly webinar, sponsored by Convoy. December 2018 Market Trends We discussed how demand has been cool for the holiday season because 1.) shipping had been relatively uninterrupted by hurricanes or other major storms this fall, and 2.) the economy has begun to plateau. With tariffs pushed back a…
Weekly Freight Roundup: A Tale of Two West Coasts
December has left the freight community patiently waiting like a kid on Christmas morning. Volumes have been incredibly stable, even trending slightly downward compared to November. Outbound Tender Rejection Rates is Down FreightWaves is reporting tender rejection rates are down to 12.71% nationally and close to year-to-date lows. The December freight market has been stable,…
Niagara Chooses Convoy as Broker of the Year
The procurement and logistics team at Niagara Bottling like to say they are a manufacturing and transportation company that happens to make bottled water. Over the next year (and well beyond), the Niagara logistics team is focused on aligning their supply chains to create efficient, waste-reducing and collaborative operations and partnerships. “Collaboration is the key…
Weekly Freight Roundup: Hot Holiday “Counterpart” Markets
Fueled by e-commerce shipments, the freight market has shaken off any lull as national tender volumes have recovered to pre-Thanksgiving levels. This is having a significant impact on dry van rates and capacity nationwide and is resulting in market imbalance. DAT is reporting load posts rose 54% last week while truck posts only increased by…
Weekly Freight Roundup: 3 Reasons This Holiday Freight Season is Different
The last week in the freight market has been a whirlwind. There has been a spike in volume, a holiday dip, a capacity dip, a post-holiday hangover (volume + capacity dip) and — finally — a period of stabilization. Retail sales were strong on the official kickoff of holiday shopping season, even setting a record…
Shippers Now Have Direct Access to Convoy’s Data and Models With Shipper Platform 2.0
Shippers across the country are overpaying on freight because they don’t have access to the right information about the market and lanes they run. Shippers recognize the need to fill this gap: According to Capgemini Consulting, 93% of shippers say that improved, data-driven decision making will be crucial to their supply chain success. At Convoy,…
FreightWaves: November Market Trends
Thanks to all who attended FreightWaves’ November Market Trends Webinar, sponsored by Convoy. Despite tariffs and the rising dollar, November started slow for freight and has started to pick up volume ahead of the holiday season. Capacity continues to slowly increase. To help you prepare for the holiday season, we’ll recap what’s going on with…
Happy Veterans Day
Many veterans have found a career in freight. To those of you who have served in the U.S. Military and to everyone who has served around the world, thank you. Happy Veterans Day. Nearly 40 percent of owner-operators have served in the military, according to the The Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA). We sat down with…
6 Ways to Make Your Shipping Facilities More Carrier Friendly (And Why It Matters)
The trucking capacity crunch, driver shortage, and electronic logging device (ELD) mandate are working together to create a carrier’s market right now. In a world where carriers can be more selective about who they work with and the business they take on, shippers need to find ways to make their facilities stand out (for good…
FreightWaves October Webinar Recap
Thanks to all who attended FreightWaves’ October Monthly webinar sponsored by Convoy. Overall, October was a slow month for freight. The market is starting to come down from recent peaks, slowing demand, while capacity is steadily increasing. Hurricane season came and went with much less impact on the US logistics network than in years past.…
Less Waiting. More Hauling. Introducing Flex Loads.
One of trucking’s dirty secrets is that poor appointment setting is a leading source of wasted time and empty miles. According to research from American Transportation Research Institute, drivers are driving empty 20.7% of the time. Even if a driver is able to find a shipment on the right route, the timing frequently doesn’t work…
FreightWaves September Webinar Recap on Hurricane and Market Outlook
Thanks to all who attended Tuesday’s FreightWaves webinar sponsored by Convoy. The session included an in-depth look at Hurricane Florence, several key economic indicators for Q3, a review on capacity and an outlook on the market. The following is a summary of the webinar along with additional Convoy insights that we believe will arm shippers…
FreightWaves August Webinar Recap and Tips for 2019 RFP Season
Thanks to all who attended Thursday’s FreightWaves webinar sponsored by Convoy. With the 2019 RFP season right around the corner, we found the session to be incredibly valuable (and timely)! What follows is a summary of the webinar along with additional Convoy insights that we believe will arm shippers and carriers with critical macroeconomic intel…
Case study: From Sheer Frustration to High Satisfaction with Convoy
Some companies think they have it tough when setting up and orchestrating the delivery networks that shuttle their products from point of origin to end customer, but J.R. Butler faces some especially high hurdles. A commercial glazing contractor in Denver, the company specializes in vertical and sloped glazing, with an emphasis on design-build, fabrication, and…
May/June market update: Preparing for produce season
Produce season happens every year, starting in March in southern states like Florida and Texas, and progresses north throughout the summer as fruits and vegetables become ready for harvest. As a result, there are more loads outbound from these produce hubs, causing capacity constraints and allowing carriers to demand higher rates. Inbound loads, on the…
Case study: Land O’Lakes partners with Convoy for consistent capacity
As a full-service cooperative that utilizes a wide variety of transportation modes and methods, Land O’ Lakes in Minneapolis may be picking up milk in a temperature-controlled truck one day and then delivering feed products in a dry van the next. Each one of these different modes and methods comes with different challenges, with the…
