Dive Brief:
- Reefer truck shortages on the spot market have persisted in areas of two western states where potatoes and dry onions are produced, per U.S. Agriculture Department reports.
- The shortages affected Idaho’s Twin Falls, Burley and Upper Valley regions as well as Washington’s Columbia River Basin, according to Dec. 4, Nov. 27 and Nov. 20 reports.
- The latest truck shortages were the first time in 2024 that they fell into that category for those two states, reflecting how soft and oversupplied the reefer market has been, DAT Freight & Analytics reported.
Dive Insight:
Overcapacity concerns have continued to bog down the industry as rightsizing has occurred.
“We’ve been losing about 7,000 carrier authorities each month so far this year,” DAT Principal Analyst Dean Croke said in a weekly update Tuesday.
Throughout 2024, reefer truck shortages have occurred occasionally in other markets, such as Florida and the Chicago area. Such shortages are not inherently bad, as they help drive demand and higher rates.
The USDA didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment about how it defines the shortage term.
Rate improvement and signs of tightening have provided hope to carriers holding on amid waning profits and even quarterly losses.
Nick Shanley, president and owner of RST Inc. in Caldwell, Idaho, said his trucking business mainly deals with contract rates, and he hasn’t seen any major upticks — despite reports of the bottom of the cycle.