Intermodal Spot Rate Pricing Trendline Analysis

Weekly discussion and analysis: Trends in the intermodal spot rate market

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.

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 0.4% from prior week.
• Down 5.3% 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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