Blog

The content below is for brokers interested in utilizing the DrayNow spot market. For brokers interested in securing intermodal drayage service for their contracted lanes, please feel free to reach out to us via contact form.

For a look at last month’s data dive on intermodal spot rates, click the link here.

For the month of June, all three of our key markets saw growth in average spot rates month-over-month, with Los Angeles and Atlanta also hitting record highs. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: spot activity on the DrayNow platform is very strong and continues to stay that way.

After decreasing last month, Los Angeles spot rates saw a 14% increase. June rates in LA are up 27% compared to the beginning of this year and 71% compared to June of 2020. With recent months showing substantial increases and decreases in rates, the LA market is presenting a lot of rate volatility that looks like it will continue.

Once again, average spot rates are up in the Atlanta market, this time jumping 19% from May. For the first time in this data series, Atlanta is now seeing higher spot rates than Chicago. Note that this is also the biggest jump for Atlanta month-over-month, signaling particularly strong spot activity in this market.

Even though the Chicago market didn’t see a record high like the other two markets, there was still a 5% increase for the month. After a few months of continued decline, it appears that Chicago rates are beginning to climb back to their March 2021 high.

It’s clear from this month’s data that intermodal is still experiencing growth in volume, with data showing that June volumes across the industry are up 10.9% year-over-year. Diesel prices also continue to increase, making these two market conditions the main reason for the increase in spot rates that DrayNow is seeing.

The current trend for spot rates is the most apparent in the aggregated data on our Intermodal Spot Rate Tracker for carriers, which is also continuing to break records in each update. With all of this spot activity and the accompanying rise in rates, it’s clear that carriers using the app are responding well to these market conditions.