This is always a good report to go over. We've also included the monthly contract rates vs. spot rates charge per DAT. It's showing contract rates are resuming their traditional "lead" over spot rates. Rates ebb and flow with market conditions, but contract rates are traditionally higher.
The issue with contract rates is often - unless you're the 800-LB Gorilla in the market or have very, very strong carrier relationships, "contracted" carriers run for the hills when spot rates spike. And when spot rates fall back below contracts, suddenly that set capacity comes back. Sometimes this is the "ugly truth" around truckload contract pricing.
What's the key? Carrier metrics/scorecards including Decline ratios.

See the latest data & analysis on North American freight costs & shipping volumes. |
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Some of you just received the December report from us. Here's the correct report for this month: January 2021.
The story is the rates.
Once again In January, our data tells a story of rising freight costs, showing the fastest rate of acceleration since 2009-2011, with the exception of a a few months in late 2018. Many factors play into this – tight capacity and new contract rates taking effect to name a few.
- When the increase in overall freight spending outpaces the increase in shipments, our new “implied freight rates” series is positive. At +10% y/y in January, this is a signal of the high delta between overall rates (across all modes) a year ago and today. Our implied freight rate has been positive five of the past six months.
- Truckload linehaul rates, specifically, have now risen for seven straight months for a total gain of 8.1% since June.
- A semiconductor shortage – impeding truck manufacturers’ ability to get new capacity into the market – will continue to cause upward pressure on freight rates.
We are not forecasting rate relief for some time.
The Cass Transportation Indexes accurately measure changes in North American freight activity and costs based on more than $26 billion in paid freight expenses for the Cass customer base of hundreds of large shippers.
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