• The intermodal spot rate to move 53-foot containers door to door declined 9.2% in the past week to $2.29 per mile, including fuel. 
• That intermodal spot rate is 5.3% below the current dry van spot rate of $2.42/mile, including fuel. Dry van spot rates have declined sharply from $3.62/mile at the beginning of the year. 
• Domestic intermodal volume averaged 311 units/day in the past week, which is more than 10% below the volume during certain weeks in November and December, suggesting that the railroads could handle more intermodal volume in the lane.  

What does this mean for you?

Brokers: Capacity remains plentiful in LA so you can continue to negotiate aggressively with carriers. But keep in mind that tender rejection rates show that dry van carriers are less willing to accept loads to Atlanta than most other LA outbound lanes. 

Carriers: Most carriers are very accepting of outbound LA loads as evidenced by the LA van outbound tender rejection rate of 2.6%. Van tender rejection rates in the LA-ATL lane are higher at 7.1%, which is still below the national van tender rejection rate. One advantage of heading to Atlanta is that it remains a headhaul market with a Van Headhaul Index of 46.  

Shippers: Contractual intermodal shippers do not need to be as concerned with getting their loads covered as they had been in recent months. Current spot rates indicate that the railroads are less concerned with protecting capacity for contracted shippers. Plus, intermodal tender rejection rates have returned to less than 1% for outbound LA loads.