Truckload Shipping Seasons - Breaking Down The Year In Truckload Shipping

You can break down the months of the year into clear truckload shipping seasons. After years in the transportation industry, you start to recognize which months are the busiest and which are the slowest. The classic example is the middle of spring, when produce harvest season hits South Texas and retailers start scrambling to find trucks.

No matter the year, you can separate freight activity into four distinct truckload shipping seasons:

1. Season 1 (Jan-Mar) - The Quiet Months
2. Season 2 (Apr-July) - The Find Me A Truck Season / The Produce Season
3. Season 3 (Aug-Oct) - The Peak Season
4. Season 4 (Nov-Dec) - The Holiday Season

At the start of a new year, the transportation world is slow - "The Quiet Months," or Season 1. By the end of March, it gets tough to find a truck and quickly turns into "Find Me A Truck Season," or Season 2. Then comes Season 3, where load volumes increase and stay high for a few months: "The Peak Season." Finally, the holidays arrive and shipping volumes taper off in Season 4, "The Holiday Season."

Season 1 (Jan-Mar) - The Quiet Months

The holiday shipping season has just ended and a new year begins. The transportation industry is quiet. Customers are finalizing sales for the rest of the year and carriers are slowly getting back on the road looking for work. In this season, truckload rates favor the shipper. Volumes are at a low point and carriers are looking for work to get them back in the swing of things. By March, volumes start ramping up as the spring and summer months approach.

Season 2 (Apr-July) - The Find Me A Truck Season

Spring is here, and load volumes are increasing around the country as summer approaches. Customers are moving their products and drivers are finding work easily. Then markets start to tighten and carrier availability drops. When produce harvest season hits, carriers chase the high-paying produce loads to make up for the slow months. Shippers start feeling the squeeze, and it becomes tough to find a truck again. This is the time of year they reach out to brokers and flat out say: "Find me a truck!"

Season 3 (Aug-Oct) - The Peak Season

Now it's the latter part of summer and produce season is winding down - but the busy stretch is just getting started. Over the next three months, customer sales explode. Orders increase and shipping volumes climb with them. Everyone prepares for "back to school" and gets ready for the holidays. Customers rush to get products to the stores and demand for trucks spikes again. By now carriers have returned to their normal routes, but volumes are so high that shippers need more trucks than usual. The industry is busy and everybody is making money as the holidays approach.

Season 4 (Nov-Dec) - The Holiday Season

And there you have it - the year in transportation, broken down into four seasons. The value of staying on top of these cycles is that you can plan ahead, anticipate rate swings, and position your truck where demand is highest. See you next season.

Remember that you can always find loads for free on the Doft Load Board.