The Weekly Report brings you updated data on recruiting metrics including click, search, and spot rates, plus a new story of the week. This week’s story – examining Southern California import levels suggests the supply bottleneck is worsening!
New episodes of the Weekly Report premiere every Wednesday at 10 AM CT on our YouTube channel and Recruiting Resources page.
We provide the Weekly Report in numerous formats every week. Which one is right for you? Watch the latest reports on our Recruiting Resources or YouTube pages, use our Numbers at a Glance section for quick visual references, download the Weekly Report PDF (available below), read the transcript, or listen to the audio version of February 2, 2022, Weekly Report below.
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Numbers at a Glance
| Spot Rates |
| WOW: ▼ Down 4¢ per mile |
| Spot Rates by Segment |
| WoW: Dry Van ▼ Down 10¢ per mile |
| WoW: Refrigerated ▼ Down 19¢ per mile |
| WoW: Flatbed ▲ Up 3¢ per mile |
| Load Posting Volume |
| WOW: ▲ Up 3% |
| Load Volume by Segment |
| WoW: Dry Van ▼ Down 2% |
| WoW: Refrigerated ▼ Down 2% |
| WoW: Flatbed ▲ Up 8% |
| Truck Postings |
| WOW: ▼ Down 1% |
| Truck Driver Searches |
| WOW: ▲ Up 7% |
| MoM: ▲ Up 33% |
| YoY: ▼ Down 2% |
| Clicks on Truck Driver Postings |
| WOW: ▼ Down 14% |
| MoM: ▲ Up 6% |
| YoY: ▲ Up 49% |
February 2, 2022 Driver Recruiting Insights
Would you like to have your own copy of the trucking industry data? All of the information covered in this week’s report for February 2, 2022, is available for your convenience in PDF form below. Click the image to view and download your copy of the Weekly Trucking Insights.
Weekly Report Transcript – February 2, 2022
Hello everyone and welcome to the Weekly Report. For Randall-Reilly I’m Joshua Miller. Before we dive in, I wanted to mention some new content coming your way.
Yesterday we released the January Driver Recruiting Monthly Trend Report, tomorrow the Year-End Trend Report covering all of 2021 will be released, and this Friday an all-new episode of Yard Jockeys will premiere.
This month’s guest is Katie Love from WorkHound. In the latest episode, Katie and Dave have a great conversation about driver retention, so … keep your eye out for that episode as well as the year-end trend report.
Now onto the Weekly Report.
THIS WEEK IN JOB BOARD SEARCHES AND CLICKS
Truck driver searches were up 7% WoW and 33% MoM but dipped by 2% YoY. Clicks on driver postings fell by 14% WoW but rose 6% MoM and 49% YoY.
THIS WEEK IN FREIGHT
Total load postings climbed by 3% WoW, and we saw flatbed postings increase by 8% WoW. However, both dry van and refrigerated postings decreased by 2% WoW.
The overall truck availability fell by 1% WoW as the overall load-to-truck ratio increased to its highest level since June.
Spot rates dropped by 4¢ per mile WoW as dry van and refrigerated rates both dropped. Dry van rates were down 10¢ per mile WoW, while refrigerated fell by 19¢ per mile WoW. Flatbed bed rates, however, increased by 3¢ per mile WoW.
Dry van and refrigerated rates are now on a four-week slide from the all-time high rates we saw at the end of December. Excluding fuel, total rates were 16% higher than the same week in 2021.
THE STORY OF THE WEEK
Decreased import volumes to Southern California continue to reveal the supply chain pressures. While imports make up a small percentage of the total freight volumes here in the U.S., the constant supply of ships waiting to unload at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports helps highlight the overall condition of the supply chain.
As a result of the constant offshore backlog, changes in the LA and Long Beach container imports reflect changes in the ability of the gateway system to handle the volume of inbound shipments in the queue.
If there is not a backlog of ships waiting to unload, the Los Angeles and Long Beach import volume measures the import demand, which fluctuates due to the various seasonal and economic pressures. Under the current circumstances, however, the falling import volumes indicate that the bottleneck issues are getting worse.
Combined imports from the two major ports were down 3% in December compared to November, and 13% lower than October imports. And these drops are not solely a result of the holiday season either; Imports to LA were down by a full 16% YoY.
The combined imports for LA and Long Beach haven’t seen levels this low since June 2020, when the low import volume was a direct result of the lower import demand. Southern California import trends seem to imply that the landslide bottleneck situation which is being driven by constraints on terminal space, trucking, and warehousing is indeed worsening.
For some perspective here, in December the two ports unloaded 24% less than what had been moved through the ports in May. As far as demand factors in, it would have been possible to equal the May totals as there was plenty of available cargo stuck offshore just waiting to unload.
The California COVID numbers didn’t spike until the end of December, and they saw even higher numbers in January, so, unfortunately, we’re probably going to see those import volumes drop even lower.
All this seems to highlight that the supply chain continues to be stretched and very stressed. Under these conditions expect freight rates to remain elevated. Drivers will likely have to continue to sit through long wait times across the supply chain, so it may be worth it for fleets to consider improving detention pay to try and keep those drivers happy.
That does it for this week’s report. Come on back and see us next week when we’ll take another look back to help you move forward. Don’t forget to check out that new episode of Yard Jockeys premiering this Friday. Until next time, have a great week everybody.
