Overdrive Magazine | Trucking Business News & Owner Operator Info
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/550385
Voices channel 19 8 | Overdrive | August 2015 Visit Senior Editor Todd Dills' CHANNEL 19 BLOG at OverdriveOnline.com/channel19 Write him at tdills@randallreilly.com. Spot market per-mile average rates published by the likes of DAT and Truckstop.com as a general rule al- ways will fluctuate with the price of fuel. This reflects the all-in nonsur- charge nature of most spot negoti- ations with brokers, something to keep in mind when you're looking at year-over-year rate comparisons. At a glance, such comparisons show a precipitous drop in rates this year. But as Truckstop.com head Scott Moscrip noted in our earlier reporting, when you account for the decline in fuel prices (about a buck a gallon), this year's aver- ages are not down as far as some think. Looking at May 2014 and 2015 rates in van and flatbed, the fall appears pretty dramatic in Truck- stop.com's paid rates data. Both segments have lost 15 cents a mile. But not so fast: Control for the big difference between the cost of fuel this May and last, and you get markedly different results, as the chart here shows. By that view, rates actually are up slightly. DAT's Trendlines website – dat. com/resources/trendlines – makes the fuel-adjusted rate dynamics fairly easy to see on separate pages for van, flat and reefer. There, they subtract average carrier surcharg- es from spot and contract rates to show performance in a line graph over the last year, updating month- ly. In that view, linehaul rates (both spot and contract) look to have been fairly flat since spring 2014's increase – good news for indepen- dent owner-operator income. But also, as wondered Kurt Keil- hofer, commenting in the Overdrive's Trucking Pro LinkedIn group, "If rates are flat … compare that thought with the trucking industry's hysteria over a driver shortage. The two are not compatible. If there was a shortage of trucks, rates would increase dramatically." Where's that capacity crunch everybody talks about? Find more analysis at the July 3 and 8 posts on the Channel 19 blog. File this, another example of on-de- mand load matching, under "Uberization of trucking" (our April cover story subject). The Dis- patcher back-office support service and smartphone app is available for Android and iOS devices. Company head A.J. Balance calls it a "booking platform for drivers" to freight available "sometimes from shippers, some- times from brokers." As with some other on-demand-matching services aimed at the long-haul market, it's geared to taking away some of the time burden from opera- tors searching for and booking loads, then collecting payment. For independents, it takes a 4 percent fee for the booking service, then an extra 3 percent to include quick pay. Planning out days in advance also is easy within the app, which in some ways resembles a load board with refined search capabilities, says Los Angeles-area-based local-run operator Jimmy Nevarez, part of Freightliner's Team Run Smart program. "You can search by date, price value – it will return the results for any day you're searching. It works well for piecing together loads." The Dispatcher back-office team is available 24/7 to assist in negotiations, Nevarez says. "The only time I'll hear directly from the broker is when they want specific driver information. Usually, that's not the case." A new 'book now' freight option via smartphone Access our interactive rates feature via OverdriveOnline.com/rates to examine 2014 aver- ages according to the day of the load negotiation, by quarter and by geographical area. Search "Cycle Analysis" at the website if you missed in-depth June reporting. Find more on the Dispatcher service in the June 30 post on the blog. May 2014, 2015 spot market rates, adjusted for fuel $0.00 $0.50 $1.00 $1.50 $2.00 May 2014 May 2015 VAN: $1.67 FLATBED: $1.75 FLATBED: $1.80 VAN: $1.70 Source: Truckstop.com paid rates, adjusted for U.S. Department of Energy national average diesel prices, assuming 6 mpg. Have spot market rates really plunged?