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Driver Recruiting Weekly Report – December 15, 2021

The Weekly Report brings you updates on the most important driver recruiting metrics each and every week. In addition to updated click, search and spot rates, we cover a new story of the week. This week’s story – November’s truck orders are at a nearly 30 year low!

New episodes of the Weekly Report premiere every Wednesday at 10 AM CT on our YouTube channel and Recruiting Resources page.

We provide the Weekly Report in numerous formats every week. Which one is right for you? Watch the latest reports on our Recruiting Resources or YouTube pages, use our Numbers at a Glance section for quick visual references, download the Weekly Report PDF (available below), read the transcript, or listen to the audio version of the December 15, 2021, Weekly Report below.

 

Numbers at a Glance

Spot Rates
WOW: Down 9¢ per mile
Spot Rates by Segment
WoW: Dry Van Down 20¢ per mile
WoW: Refrigerated Down 14¢ per mile
WoW: Flatbed Flat
Load Posting Volume
WOW: Down 4%
Load Volume by Segment
WoW: Dry Van Down 8%
WoW: Refrigerated Down 10%
WoW: Flatbed Up 3%
Truck Postings
WOW: Down 5%
Truck Driver Searches
WOW: Down 5%
MoM: Down 25%
YoY: Down 35%
Clicks on Truck Driver Postings
WOW: Down 5%
MoM: Down 6%
YoY: Up 18%

December 15, 2021 Driver Recruiting Insights

Would you like to have your own copy of the trucking industry data? All of the information covered in this week’s report for December 15, 2021, is available for your convenience in PDF form below.

Weekly Report Transcript – December 15, 2021

Hello everyone and welcome to the final Weekly Report for 2021. For Randall-Reilly I’m Joshua Miller. Yes, that’s right, this week will mark our last report for a few weeks. We’ll be taking some time off for the holidays, but don’t worry we’ll be right back at it the first week of January.

Before we dive into the numbers if you’re watching us over on YouTube don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe; and if you are joining us on our Recruiting Resource site, why don’t you go ahead and sign up for our monthly newsletter to make sure you’re up to date with all our driver recruiting content. Now let’s get to it.

THIS WEEK IN JOB BOARD SEARCHES AND CLICKS

Truck driver searches were down across the board. We saw drops of 5% WoW, 25% MoM, and 35% YoY. For clicks we saw drops WoW and MoM of 5% and 6% respectively, but an increase of 18% YoY.

Both search and click activity dipped by 5% last week, and click activity dropped for all driver types currently being tracked (those being company, owner-operators, team, and inexperienced/trainee).

THIS WEEK IN FREIGHT

Total load postings declined by 4% WoW. Dry van postings fell by 8% as refrigerated dropped by 10% WoW, but flatbed managed to increase by 3% WoW.

Overall truck availability was down 5% WoW, as the load-to-truck ratio increased in each of the three major segments.

Spot rates dropped by 9¢ per mile WoW. Dry van rates fell by 20¢, and refrigerated was down 14¢ per mile WoW, while flatbed rates remained unchanged. Interestingly enough, though rates did decline sharply the overall rates excluding fuel are actually still 8% higher than they were this time last year.

STORY OF THE WEEK

November truck orders were at their lowest level in nearly 30 years. There were fewer than 10,000 heavy truck orders for the month of November. This number is the lowest total order number in November since all the way back in 1995. This low is accentuated even more by the fact that every other month in 2021 saw order totals of at least 20,000.

Now, November’s low order numbers are in no way an indication of a lack of demand – rather a signal of no confidence from fleets and manufacturers regarding the still strained supply chain, which is still struggling to find enough components to actually build new tractors.

It appears OEMs have opted to take a more cautious approach to booking orders to avoid extending the cycle of customer expectations management. After overbooking nearly every month in 2021, OEMs are now being very careful about their scheduling commitments as we head into 2022. This is likely going to continue until we see the supply chain improve.

The latest data shows the Class 8 backlog currently sits at nearly 281,000 units, and at the current rate, the backlog-to-build rate is 14.6 months.

That does it for us this week … and this year. Remember we will be taking a little time off for the holidays, but we’ll back in January. We look forward to you joining us for an all-new report with all the latest data and a new story of the week Wednesday, January 5, 2022. Until then we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to all of you. We look forward to seeing you in the new year.