Truckload Tender Volume Jumps 5% as Van Spot Rates Hit $3.49 a Mile

Truckload freight demand rose nearly 5% week over week as of November 9, lifting the FreightWaves SONAR Tender Volume Index to 11,600 from just under 11,000 on October 22 — a level last recorded in late spring. The reading, presented in a SONAR data review by Julie Van de Kamp, arrives in a market already short on capacity, and it lands squarely in the middle of peak freight season.

The strain shows up most clearly in carriers' willingness to say no. The Outbound Tender Rejection Index held at 12.95% in the week to November 9, up 0.22 percentage points week over week, according to SONAR. Flatbed capacity is tighter still, with flatbed tender rejections running at 21%.

Where are spot rates moving?

Van spot rates reached $3.49 per mile on November 9, up from $3.44 in September. That 5-cent climb over roughly six weeks equals about 1.5% added to a shipper's linehaul cost — and the national spot map shows the increases are broad rather than isolated. Most markets shaded blue over the prior four days, the SONAR display indicating rising rates nearly everywhere.

"Spot rates are really going up across the country," Van de Kamp said. "So much blue overall in this market, meaning that spot rates have risen in the past 4 days."

The strongest markets included Wyoming, Utah, Montana and Laredo. Softness persisted along parts of the East Coast and in select Midwest markets, notably Rock Island, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin; and Philadelphia.

Is this a lasting shift or a blip?

The contract market offers the clearest answer. The van contract rate per mile linehaul index — SONAR's BCRPM1 — hit $2.85 per mile, a 52-week high, Van de Kamp noted. Spot and contract rates rarely climb together on a short-lived spike; their simultaneous rise suggests a durable repricing of truckload capacity rather than a one-week flutter.

For shippers, that means compounding pressure: tender rejections near 13% make it harder to move freight under existing agreements, while the spot fallback costs more each week. Brokers face margin compression as they bid for scarce trucks, and carriers — for the first time in a long slack cycle — hold pricing leverage in both channels.

What is happening in LTL?

Less-than-truckload pricing is climbing on its own track. LTL cost per hundredweight rose from $46.78 in August to $48.98 in October, a gain of roughly $2.20 — about 4.7% — in two months. SONAR's platform now disaggregates that figure by region and by length of haul, covering city, short-haul, tweener, mid-haul and long-haul segments. The added granularity lets shippers and brokers pinpoint where LTL pricing pressure is most acute before it lands in their invoices.

Fuel offers one small offset. The Department of Energy diesel price fell about 6 cents week over week as of November 9, though it remained up 9 cents month over month.

Van de Kamp characterized the broader market as moderately tight, and said she will keep watching whether the demand uptick persists deeper into the fall peak. With tender volume, rejections, spot rates and contract rates all pointed the same direction in early November, the burden of proof now sits with anyone expecting the squeeze to ease.