A freight market turnaround in 2024?
Tender rejection data in the FreightWaves SONAR data platform shows that the freight market bottomed on May 14. Since then, conditions for carriers have slowly been improving.
SONAR’s outbound tender rejection index (OTRI) tracks the balance of supply and demand in trucking by measuring the percentage of truckload freight that is rejected. In trucking, supply equates to the number of trucks available in a market for dispatch, while demand is the number of loads tendered in that market.
OTRI data comes from the “tender” messages between shippers and motor carriers. Tender messages are requests for truckload capacity by shippers in the contract freight market. A tender rejection by a carrier tells a shipper that the carrier has another option for that truck (or trucks). Higher rejection rates mean that the supply/demand balance is swinging in favor of trucking fleets.
Current tender rejection data signals a stronger quarter year over year (y/y) for motor carriers. Tender rejections are on pace to surpass last year’s number and should do so by the end of the third quarter.
