With the price of fuel and other essential goods reaching all-time highs, it’s more important than ever to make informed decisions on each and every load that comes your way. Veteran truckers know that sometimes a rate really is too good to be true if it sends you into a market where you’ll run empty or lose money on the backhaul. One of the best ways to stay up to date on which markets are hot and cold and to maximize your profit margins is to become a regular reader of “Where’s the Freight?,” Trucker Tools’ freight forecast for carriers and owner operators. Unlike many other freight forecasts and market reports, “Where’s the Freight?” is free and published three times each week, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Read on to discover how you can keep those wheels turning and earning with Trucker Tools’ “Where’s the Freight?”
Based on Real-World, Real-Time Data
Some freight forecasts and market reports use previous years’ data to predict where demand and rates for specific types of truckload capacity will be high and low in the future. As we’ve seen over the last two years with the pandemic, sometimes you can’t determine what’ll happen next by looking at what has happened in the past. Freight markets can be volatile and unpredictable. The insights that you see in “Where’s the Freight?” are based on the latest load and transaction data from our app, carrier platform and broker platform. We also consider inbound truck traffic vs. outbound truck traffic, load vs. truck ratios, and other indexes to predict ebbs and flows of demand/rates in a particular market.
Using all of this data, we can predict with high accuracy where demand for dry van, reefer, power only and flatbed capacity will be highest, lowest, increasing and decreasing over the next five to seven day period. Instead of looking backward to try to predict which markets will be hot or cold, “Where’s the Freight?” predicts which way markets will be swinging in the future based on what’s happening right now.
Stay Ahead of the Competition with ‘Where’s the Freight?’
Market reports and rate predictions that rely solely on historical data are usually based on truck versus load ratios that compare current and previous rates. They also often only reflect what the market is expected to be like today, not what is expected in the future. With Trucker Tools’ “Where’s the Freight?,” you know ahead of time where demand and rates will be highest and lowest in the future, which gives you time to get your truck(s) into those hot markets and out of those cold markets before they shift.
Staying even a few days ahead of your competitors can be a major difference maker for your bottom line, especially if you’re a smaller carrier. It’s easier for larger fleets to send their trucks into markets that are trending up because they often have multiple locations throughout the country out of which they operate. If you’re a smaller fleet, your assets are limited and you likely operate out of a single location. As such, it takes time for you to get your trucks in and out of markets. If you’re based in Chicago and you know from “Where’s the Freight?” that demand in and out of Long Beach, Calif., is going to be high over the next five to seven days, you have the time to get your trucks into the area before the market turns.
To view the latest edition of “Where’s the Freight?,” follow Trucker Tools on Facebook or visit the Trucker Tools blog.
To download the Trucker Tools app, visit https://www.truckertools.com/carriers/.
To start using Trucker Tools’ free carrier software platform, visit https://bookaload.truckertools.com/.
