FTR Transportation Intelligence and Truckstop.com released week 4 of the Spot Market Insights, showing that last week’s broad swath of severe winter weather fully delivered the expected boost to the spot market and perhaps then some.
Total broker-posted spot rates in the Truckstop.com system rose during the week ended January 30 (week 4) by the most in a single week since the end of 2023. The 45-cent surge in refrigerated spot rates is the largest on record, at least back to 2008. The 20-cent jump in dry van spot rates is the third largest on record. Flatbed spot rates rose for the 10th time in 11 weeks.
Total load activity rose 17.4% from the prior week’s level after declining around 3% in each of the prior two weeks. Load postings were close to 56% higher than during the same 2025 week as all three principal equipment types recorded very large prior-year comparisons. Volume was close to 3% higher than the five-year average for the week. Presumably due to weather disruptions, truck postings fell 8.5%, and the Market Demand Index – the ratio of loads to trucks – surged to the highest level since late March 2022.
The total market broker-posted rate rose just over 9 cents to its highest level of the year, falling about 3 cents short of the total rate in the final week of 2025. Total rates were 11% higher than in the same week last year for the strongest prior-year comparison since April 2022.
The weather impact is obvious enough just in the scope of the surges in refrigerated and dry van spot rates, but the effect is especially remarkable because spot rates for both equipment types almost always fall significantly during week 4. During 2015 through 2025, dry van spot rates on average fell 4.8 cents during week 4 while refrigerated spot rates dropped 8.6 cents. Rates for both equipment types fell in week 4 every year during that period except in 2021.
During the current week, extreme cold temperatures could keep refrigerated spot rates elevated as shippers seek insulated equipment to protect typically dry van freight that is subject to freezing. However, spot rates – especially those for dry van and flatbed – likely will not match or exceed those in week 4.
To read the full report visit https://spot.ftrintel.com/current?mc_cid=1286eb376c&mc_eid=d80584e5b4.