Weekly discussion and analysis: Trends in the intermodal spot rate market
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For the week of April 29, 2025, domestic intermodal spot rate index:
- Down 0.4 from prior week.
- Down 5.3% from prior year.
- As the above chart suggests, the year-over-year gap will continue to close through the 2nd QTR. We anticipate the intermodal spot rates will then hold fairly close to prior year because the lack of a freight market catalyst to tighten capacity to a level that would drive rates up.
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Year-to-Date Intermodal Volume by Region and Railroad vs. 2024
North American Intermodal: 5.4%
United States: 8.0%
Railroad
- BNSF: 8.7%
- CN: -1.3%
- CPKC: 7.1%
- CSX: 3.6%
- GMXT: -2.0%
- NS: 4.1%
- UP: 14.9%
Comparison of Truckload to Intermodal Spot Rate
National Truckload Spot Rate (as reported by the DAT Trendline Report):
- Down 0.5% from prior week.
- Up 0.5% from prior year.
Domestic 53' Intermodal Spot Rate:
- Down 0.3 from prior week.
- Down 53% from prior year.
For a full review of the 2024 US Intermodal Savings Against Truckload we point you to a tremendous piece of research the Journal of Commerce publishes quarterly.
Diesel Fuel Update
The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported an average diesel fuel price of $3.514 per gallon this week, which is down $0.020 or 0.6% from the prior week.
The diesel price per gallon is down $0.433 or 11.0% from the same period last year.
The full spreadsheet of the historical weekly price moves of diesel full can be found at https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel.
Intermodal Spot Rate Trend Graphs
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