The freight industry as it pertains to the United States is one of the most widely connected industries in the entire world. Goods can be manufactured in Alaska, stored in California, and shipped to Florida, all before it appears in your local supermarket. To this effect, there are numerous hubs throughout the country in which the traffic of freight is extremely high. These cities in the freight world are akin to large stocks in the way that these ‘hubs’ are looked to as a microcosm of the freight industry as a whole. Some of these so-called hubs include cities like Chicago, Dallas, and Jacksonville. One city in particular that is vital in the world of freight is Fort Worth, Texas. Being not only a connection between the west coast and middle America, but also between the US and Mexico. For these reasons, Fort Worth is worthy of keeping the attention of freight experts when examining the industry as a whole. With all this in mind, what is the latest on Fort Worth freight?
Over the last week, outbound tender volumes (the measure of shippers’ offers to carriers to transport freight) has jumped 10%. This is extremely good to see considering volume across the board in the United States has been declining as of recently. With the overpopulation of inventory, there were less offers to move freight seeing that shippers couldn’t justify moving product they believed would not be bought. Furthermore, rejection rates in Fort Worth increased slightly- while that rate is still low (2.63%), there is still plenty of capacity following Thanksgiving to match the rising volume. Lastly, the spot rates throughout the country have been declining since early into this year- and this month is no exception. Early pandemic operations saw this rate skyrocket, and while it is good to see the rate settle down since then, these rates are soon estimated to bottom out.
While the state of the market is not where experts would hope- and when is it ever- there is a consensus that we are moving toward a healthy equilibrium within the freight industry. It will take big steps and more than an individual city’s progress to ail the woes of the post-pandemic freight world, but seeing Forth Worth slowly recovering is a hopeful sign of momentum for the industry as a whole.