After a brief lull, we are seeing capacity tighten again in the Southeast. Winter storms recently reduced productivity in the Northeast. Analysts are continuing to increase their contractual rate increase percentages each month – now looking for 8% to 12 % contract rate increases for 2018.
Spot Market Trends
Market Demand Index Through February
MDI averaged 38.8 loads per truck in February, up ~132% YOY, but down ~11% compared to 43.4 loads in January. … with the initial impact of electronic logs also likely accentuating industry-wide tightness. Looking ahead, seasonally strong trends are likely to persist given ongoing restocking tailwinds, with the actual enforcement of electronic logs in April potentially further restricting capacity.
