Spot market freight availability increased by 65 percent in November compared to last year, according to the TransCore Freight Index, a measure of truckload freight volume found on load boards supported by the DAT Network, including 3sixty Freight Match and TruckersEdge.net.
Load-to-truck ratios on the spot market have been trending upward since February. November’s ratio of 2.5 loads posted per available truck was 120 percent higher than the load-to-truck ratio for November 2008, because of increasing freight volume in 2009 and excess capacity in Q4 2008 that led carriers to post their available equipment more aggressively than would be typical for the holiday shipping season.
November’s results also continue a four-month trend of better-than-seasonal improvement. Although November 2009 freight volume was down 4.4 percent from October’s, a year ago freight availability in the spot market declined 37 percent over the same two-month period.
