Chart of the Week: Outbound Average Length of Haul – USA SONAR: OALOHA.USA
The common length of haul for a truckload has plummeted in recent months, averaging nearly 8% shorter 12 months over 12 months to start out 2025. It is a dramatic shift from what was happening this summer, when the load lengths were averaging 7% longer than the previous 12 months. This may increasingly not appear to be much to the surface observer, however the implications are quite dramatic from a supply chain management and carrier perspective.
The information suggests the shrinking load lengths are being driven by simultaneous growth in demand for loads moving lower than 100 miles and shrinking demand for loads moving greater than 450 miles.
Within the chart above, COTVI (green) represents local truckload tenders that move lower than a fourth of a day’s drive. Its annual growth rate averaged around 20% throughout 2024. The COTVI growth rate outperformed all other load lengths. Total tender volume growth averaged around 7% for the whole 12 months.
The expansion in shorter-haul truckloads is possibly deriving from corporations’ efforts to scale back the length of haul between distribution center and consumer. The expansion in e-commerce is the driving force behind this initiative. Consumers who go for online ordering need delivery times which might be as close as possible to the same-day delivery they’ll get by going to a store.
This doesn’t explain everything of the shrinking load lengths, nonetheless. That freight still has to maneuver into the success centers from long distances. In other words, a series of short moves will not be replacing one longer one.
Long-haul truckload volumes (LOTVI) were down 13% y/y last week, which suggests that is something beyond seasonality.
Intermodal rail demand was up 6% versus this time last 12 months, a trend that has been consistent the past seven months. Starting in July, shippers began utilizing intermodal more regularly for shipments coming off the West Coast, possibly resulting from the deterioration in service they received from the truckload providers.
Tender rejection rates, the proportion of load coverage requests turned down by carriers, for loads moving out of the Ontario, California, market jumped from a particularly low 3% in early May to over 8% in June after which topped 9% across the Fourth of July.
This decline in carrier compliance coincided with the following growth in loaded intermodal containers (ORAILL.LAX) being moved on the rails out of Los Angeles.
Ongoing conflicts and geopolitical tensions are pushing shippers to herald inventory faster than they normally would. This puts less pressure on domestic shipping as many goods are already within the country once they are needed for replenishment.