Happy New Year!!! The Weekly Report is back and looking to help you start the year off right. Each week we bring you updates on the most important driver recruiting metrics including click, search, and spot rates, plus a new story of the week. This week’s story – 2021 ended with a bang, as holiday truckload demand was stronger than in 2020.
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 January 5, 2022, Weekly Report below.
Numbers at Glance
| Spot Rates |
| WOW: ▲ Up 17.5¢ per mile |
| Spot Rates by Segment |
| WoW: Dry Van ▲ Up 15¢ per mile |
| WoW: Refrigerated ▲ Up 31¢ per mile |
| WoW: Flatbed ■ Flat |
| Load Posting Volume |
| WOW: ▲ Up 12% |
| Load Volume by Segment |
| WoW: Dry Van ▲ Up 18% |
| WoW: Refrigerated ▲ Up 33% |
| WoW: Flatbed ▼ Down 3% |
| Truck Postings |
| WOW: ▼ Down 8% |
| Truck Driver Searches |
| WOW: ▲ Up 2% |
| MoM: ▼ Down 10% |
| YoY: ▼ Down 21% |
| Clicks on Truck Driver Postings |
| WOW: ▲ Up 10% |
| MoM: ▲ Up 4% |
| YoY: ▲ Up 54% |
January 5, 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 January 5, 2022, is available for your convenience in PDF form below.
Weekly Report Transcript – January 5, 2022
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Weekly Report. For Randall-Reilly, I’m Joshua Miller. It’s Wednesday, January 5th, 2022 – the first report of a new year. We have all the updated rates and data you’re here for, but first … we have a brand-new podcast debuting this week hosted by my good buddy David Arsenault, called Yard Jockeys.
Each month Dave will discuss a new topic with an industry expert. His first guest, Jason Miller, an Associate Professor of Supply Chain Management, sits down to discuss what stood out to him about 2021 and what he thinks we can expect as we head into 2022.
That show will debut on YouTube and our Randall-Reilly site this Friday, so be sure to check it out. If that sounds like something you’d be into … don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe while you’re over on our YouTube channel, and if you haven’t already, sign up for our monthly newsletter on our site. Each month it will feature some of our newest content offerings. Alright! Shameless plug over. Let’s get to the report.
THIS WEEK IN JOB BOARD SEARCHES AND CLICKS
Truck driver searches were up 2% WoW, but down 10% MoM, and 21% YoY. Meanwhile, clicks were up across the board with gains of 10% WoW, 4% MoM, and 54% YoY.
As we thought may be the case, click activity picked up in the week after Christmas. All tracked driver types had at least an 8% WoW increase. In addition to that, click-through rates rose for all driver types, and that increase in activity suggests drivers had a higher intent to find new driving jobs last month than they did in December of 2020.
THIS WEEK IN FREIGHT
Load postings rose by 12% WoW, with both dry van and refrigerated seeing sizable gains. Dry van was up 18%, while refrigerated postings increased by 33% WoW. Flatbed postings, however, declined by 3% WoW.
With that massive gain, refrigerated volume surpassed the previous record high by nearly 9%, and refrigerated volume was 89% higher than the same week in 2020 … AND more than triple the five-year average.
Overall truck availability decreased by 8% compared to the previous week. The load-to-truck ratio jumped to its strongest level since late June. Refrigerated’s load-to-truck ratio hit its highest level on record by a massive margin, while dry van’s load-to-truck ratio hit the third strongest level on record, while flatbed rose incrementally compared to the previous week.
Spot rates jumped 17 ½¢ and hit a record level. Dry van saw increases of 15¢ WoW, refrigerated was up 31¢ WoW, and flatbed remained flat.
STORY OF THE WEEK
As last year came to an end the holiday truckload demand was stronger than that of 2020. Truckload tender volumes are averaging 10% higher than the previous year since December 22nd. This seems to signal that shippers still have plenty of freight to move as we head into the new year.
Shippers, however, do seem to be wary of taking their foot off the gas even with concerns of demand receding in response to the rapid rise of inflation. Port congestion is significantly worse than it was at this point last year, which means shippers can’t assume order cycles will get any better just yet.
Trucking employment levels are still not quite where they were prior to the pandemic – at least in regard to company drivers – and demand is still significantly higher than the 2019 levels. Last year, shippers were expecting transportation capacity to ease as it traditionally does after the Christmas holidays, but this year there seems to be a slower-paced decline. In 2020, tender volumes fell 8% from December 4th to December 22nd. In 2021, however, the tender volume only fell by 4.3% in that same time period.
That’s it for this week’s report. If you’d like a PDF of all the information, we covered today you can find that down in the description on YouTube or in the body of the page on our Randall-
Reilly site. Don’t forget to come back and see us next week with an all-new report, and don’t forget to check out our brand-new podcast, Yard Jockeys, debuting this Friday. Until next time, have a great week everybody.
