Spot market calculations are hard when living the trucker’s life. Whether you’re driving a flatbed, dry van or reefer, it’s mighty important to understand how these affect freight demands. In certain cases, in fact, the Corona Virus pandemic did hinder the progression of the spot market. Even then, it would then roar back to life as per-mile spot rates jumped from June to November.

Surging rates have buoyed operators and fleets to the depths of a downturn in the spring.

Regarding the momentum, it was able to be on course to stall. Normal freight season trends and typical market cycles override the factors in spot booms in the first place.

Jim Nicholson, VP of operations at Loadsmart, had this to say: “capacity is coming back online. We do expect volumes to increase, but those relying on spot volume could be in a pinch here for the next few weeks.”

The Spot Market Has A Lot Of Resurgence

An analyst at Pickett Research, Chris Pickett, believes in a slowdown within freight demand. This may particularly on the spot market, looming over the freight industry soon this year.

The market will be ripe for the boom of the usual boom-and-bust cycle in late 2020 and early 2021. “And that’s exactly what we got.” This is of course after the crash and quick recovery in last year’s second quarter. After 2020, “rates [have been marching] sequentially higher, which is exactly what was arguably supposed to happen as part of the normal cycle.”

Whether or not this could play out for the fulfillment of 2021’s prophecy is yet to be known.

Expect the spot market to go down over the next couple of months, if you are indeed anticipating this like a freight carrier. The future for now, remains unsure and scary in the temporary state of dread.