Hurricane Florence has made landfall this morning rocking the Carolina coastlines. Capacity in the Southeast region has already tightened significantly, and with disaster relief (FEMA) on the horizon, capacity in other regions will start to tighten as well. Retail Peak season is in full swing causing tighter capacity and we expect that trend to continue through the end of year past the holidays. The biggest areas of concern right now are North Carolina, South Carolina, and the surrounding states due to Hurricane Florence.

Retail peak season has begun and will continue through the end of the year, causing capacity to tighten in all areas. Tropical Storm Gordon made landfall on Wednesday which will decrease capacity and inflate rates in the Southern regions, but will have a ripple effect to surrounding regions as well. With Retail peak season and the continued weather issues, we expect overall capacity to tighten in the next month or so and continue through the remainder of the year.

As we near September, we're starting to see the annual retail surge, particularly on the West Coast, but we expect it to start affecting capacity in all regions soon. Capacity is going to tighten significantly for the upcoming Labor Day holiday. That coupled with the retail surge, we expect capacity to remain tighter for the rest of the year.

As the summer freight boom declines, so are truckload rates across all modes. However, market conditions are starting to tighten in the Midwest region. We are expecting with the Labor Day holiday and the retail surge starting in the upcoming month that capacity will continue to tighten in all regions of the country.

As we near August, we're finally seeing some relief from the tight capacity that defined most of May and June. Dry van, reefer and flatbed rates have dipped slightly from their record highs as a result of less loads flooding the market and more trucks becoming available. We expect the market to remain steady until the end of next month when the amount of imports rise, big box store volume increases, and shippers begin stocking up in preparation for the holidays.

The market remains relatively unchanged over the past couple weeks with significant tightness and high rates out of the South. We expect rates to begin leveling out and the southern produce season boom to subside in the coming weeks. If history is any guide, that will mean the capacity restrictions will slowly start moving Northwest and begin affecting Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Michigan, and Ohio.

Similar to last week, the market continues to be extremely tight in the Southeast due to a strong produce season. We're also seeing capacity tighten in the Southwest and Texas with increasing delays getting trucks across the border into the US. We expect the market to continue to tighten in the coming weeks with end-of-month/end-of-quarter orders coupled with the approaching holiday. "As a shipper, being flexible with carriers/drivers will help in these market conditions," says Brian McIntyre, Director of Operations at Sheer. "Since equipment is hard to come by, you don't want to limit yourself."

"This week we're seeing continued capacity struggles in the Southeastern US, particularly outbound Georgia as the produce boom continues to move north," says Tim Young, VP of Brokerage at Sheer. "Flatbed capacity also remains a challenge as prices continue to rise and the summer construction season doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon."

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