SONAR Sightings: Ontario, California, recovers; rate spread between East, West coasts widens

Atlanta

Truckload volumes out of Atlanta made a recovery like any other market after the holiday, but they’re hardly moving afterward.

“There’s no freight coming out of Georgia,” a freight broker told FreightWaves on Wednesday morning. 

Atlanta has been one of the better markets to be in over the summer, giving a new meaning to the nickname Hotlanta. Rejection rates reached up to 12.5% leading into the Fourth of July holiday, and Atlanta held more outbound tender market share several times over Ontario.

In the past week, the rejection rates are down 24 bps to 3.8% — the lowest in Atlanta since the start of the pandemic.

NTI as a point of reference

The National Truckload Index is a daily look at how spot rates in specific lanes hold up in comparison to the national average, giving carriers and brokers an idea of which lanes to gravitate toward or avoid.

Diesel fuel prices

The benchmark average price for most fuel surcharges set by the Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration has dropped 10 of the past 11 weeks, FreightWaves’ John Kingston reports. It is down 77.7 cents a gallon since its high of $5.81 on June 20.

The Diesel Truckstop Actual Price Per Gallon is continuing its downward trend that started at the beginning of the month, falling 9 cents per gallon in the last two days. This is obviously good news for carriers, but fuel prices still remain significantly high at $5.03 a gallon.

As carriers pay less at the pump and the benchmark average drops, fuel surcharges that carriers charge will decline as well.

Import costs between East and West coasts spread

The cost to ship from China to West Coast ports of the United States has fallen steadily since the first week of September, while the cost to ship to the East Coast remained relatively consistent. 

Spot market rates recorded by Freightos Baltic Daily Index from China to the West Coast dropped $525 since last Monday, but spot rates to the East Coast only slightly trickled down $100 in the same time frame.

A decrease in the prices of West Coast shipments has caused the spread between the two to increase from just under $3,500 on Sept. 2 to $4,648 on Monday.

Watch: Carrier update