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Weekly Driver Recruiting Report – May 4, 2022

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 – The freight market is showing signs of strength despite headwinds.

New episodes of the Weekly Report premiere every Wednesday at 10 AM CT on our YouTube channel and Talent Intelligence Resource page.

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The latest episode of Digging Deeper will tackle TikTok with the help of guests Kyle Jernigan and Zack Flippo. Everything you ever wanted to know and more!

Click here to register for the premiere of “TikTok, Boomers, Zoomers, and You.” Premieres Thursday, May 12th at 2 PM CST.

We provide the Weekly Report in numerous formats every week. Which one is right for you? Watch the latest reports on our Talent Intelligence Resource page or YouTube channel, 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 May 4, 2022, Weekly Report below.

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Numbers at a Glance

Spot Rates
WOW: 2¢ per Mile
Spot Rates by Segment
WoW: Dry Van 5¢ per Mile
WoW: Refrigerated 6¢ per Mile
WoW: Flatbed 3¢ per Mile
Load Posting Volume
WOW: 4%
Load Volume by Segment
WoW: Dry Van FLAT
WoW: Refrigerated 6%
WoW: Flatbed 4%
Truck Postings
WOW: Up 3%
Truck Driver Searches
WOW: Down 18%
MoM: Down 14%
YoY: Down 6%
Clicks on Truck Driver Postings
WOW: 4%
MoM: 11%
YoY: 25%

May 4, 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 May 4, 2022, is available for your convenience in PDF form below. Click the image to view and download your copy of the Weekly Trucking Insight.

Weekly Report Transcript – May 4, 2022

Hello everyone and welcome to the Weekly Report. For Randall Reilly, I’m Joshua Miller. Before we jump into this week’s report don’t forget like, share, and subscribe to make sure you never miss out on new content.

Speaking of new content, a new Digging Deeper is set to debut online next Thursday. This time out Dave and his guests will tackle TikTok and fill you in on all you need to know about the social media platform. I’ll leave a link below to register for the premiere, which as always will be followed by a LIVE Q&A session with his guests, Kyle Jernigan and Zack Flippo. And that Q&A session will only be available to those who attend the online premiere next Thursday, that’s May 12th at 2 PM CST.

All right now let’s jump into the report.

THIS WEEK IN JOB BOARD SEARCHES AND CLICKS

Truck driver searches were down all the way around. There were drops of 18% WoW, 14% MoM, and 6% YoY. Clicks on the other hand saw declines of 4% WoW and 11% MoM, but a 25% increase YoY.

The large WoW drop-off in search activity with that smaller drop in click activity indicates that major job boards may have been targeting users who would be more likely to click on the jobs they searched for.

Job boards can attempt to prioritize searches over clicks or vice versa. When prioritizing searches, they serve ads to users more likely to search, but less likely to click. Targeting those who are more likely to click costs more, so it’s not unusual to see search numbers drop when these users are targeted.

In this case, however, both numbers dropped, which would also seem to indicate that driver interest has also decreased. All tracked driver types saw double-digit percentage Search decreases. Clicks on company driver posting rose, while clicks on all other major driver types fell.

THIS WEEK IN FREIGHT

Total load postings increased by 4% WoW. That level comes in 22% below the same week in 2021 but remains 85% higher than the five-year average for the week.

Dry van volume was flat, while refrigerated rose by 6% and flatbed volume increased by 4% WoW.

The load availability was higher in all regions except for the South Central and West Coast.

The overall load-to-truck ratio increased slightly as we saw truck availability tick up by 3% WoW.

Spot rates increased by 2¢ per mile WoW. Dry van rates decreased by 5¢, while refrigerated fell by 6¢, and flatbed rose by 3¢ per mile WoW.

The total spot rate increase is now just 7¢ below the record posted at the end of 2021, however, the rate excluding fuel is now 33¢ below the record.  

Before we move on to the story of the week, just another reminder that the CVSA Roadcheck event, which is highlighting wheel ends this year, will take place May 17-19th. You can expect the spot market to be majorly affected during this time as truck availability will drop with drivers taking time off to avoid the added hassle.

STORY OF THE WEEK

Despite a sharp and extended pullback of spot market rates, coupled with that surge in the price of diesel fuel, the majority of carriers remain optimistic about the freight market.

Cancellation rates for truck and trailer orders both remain within the historical expected range, with many of the cancellations occurring due to orders for last year’s model truck orders being canceled and simply reentering the same order for the new year model trucks.

We also see freight volumes continuing to grow. FTR is forecasting Class 8 freight growth to remain healthy this year and only drop off by 3% next year. However, there are some risks to this forecast. For instance, if the economy does indeed head into a recession, it could take the freight markets with it.

Our friend, Jason Miller, notes that there is a lot of fundamental strength in the trucking industry’s underpinning.

Contract rates have soared for the past few months, which explains at least in part – the recent spot market pullback.

Credit card spending, which reached the lowest point this year in March, trended upward in April. Spending cooled in the first half of March while oil prices skyrocketed, and spot rates fell steeply. While there are not any YoY gains in April after accounting for inflation, the current levels still remain far above 2019 levels.

That does it for this week’s report. We hope the information has been useful to you. Don’t forget to download your own PDF copy of all the information covered in today’s report. Links are available in the description on YouTube and the body of the page on our Randall Reilly site. While you’re clicking that link to download go ahead and click the link to sign up for our next Digging Deeper too. Until next time, have a great week everybody.