With New York, California and Washington experiencing a high number of infections from the coronavirus, trucking spot rates in those areas have increased and carriers are even rejecting loads into places where the virus has hit the hardest. In addition, load times at many warehouses have increased.
Rates to haul from Los Angeles to Seattle, including fuel, are up 9.6% in one week alone. Rates from Dallas to Los Angeles are up 27%, although those rates had cratered in February. Many truckers are now turning down some loads to New York where more than 15,000 cases (and growing exponentially every day) of the virus have been detected. In particular, less-than-truckload (LTL) jobs are being rejected because those loads tend to cause drivers to have to enter and exit their trucks several times for various deliveries.
In the New York area, carriers are adhering to a COVID-19 policy by not taking signatures for delivery, not doing inside deliveries and practicing social distancing (staying 6-feet away from others). Some carriers are also turning down shipping loads into the major ports of New York and New Jersey centered around Elizabeth, NJ. Rejections are up to 16% in New Jersey, compared to 13% across the rest of the nation.
While all of this is happening, wait times have soared at many warehouses with freight brokers unable to verify appointment times. The average wait times are now at 159 minutes and can be as much as 322 minutes for loading and unloading in the Philadelphia market. This is leaving many carriers to turn down high spot rates because the wait times are simply not worth it.
