Spot Rates Jumped 31%. Your Contract Didn't Move.

The market flipped this quarter and the paperwork is starting to catch up. Dry van spot rates ran 31% ahead of last year in May, ocean carriers tripled China-to-West Coast container rates since March for reasons that have nothing to do with demand, and both of those facts are about to collide in a drayage and dry van capacity scramble heading into peak. If your contract book is still priced like it's 2024, you're funding the gap out of your own margin every time you go to spot to cover.

Say this

This is the renewal conversation you start before the shipper starts it. Call your contract accounts this week and say the market just posted a 31% spot increase year-over-year and their rates haven't moved anywhere close to that, so let's talk about locking capacity now instead of getting surprised at RFP season. Shippers read the same index you do, and they know their renewal is coming, so you're not delivering bad news, you're delivering the conversation they were already dreading having to start. Position it as protection: "I'd rather lock you in on fair terms today than have you scrambling on spot in Q4 when this gap gets worse." The broker who owns that renewal conversation owns the account through the back half of the year. Don't wait for the RFP, get there first.

Say this

Get on the phone with every import-heavy shipper you have, especially food, CPG, and retail, and ask them directly where their boxes are landing after August 1 and whether they're front-loading ahead of the next rate hike. That question alone signals you're watching the supply chain, not just quoting loads, and it opens the door to talking about locking drayage and inland capacity before the burst hits. Say it plainly: "Ocean carriers are squeezing rates on purpose, your inventory is going to move in waves instead of steady flow, and I want to have trucks lined up before that hits instead of after." Shippers whose ocean leg just got unpredictable are paying more attention to reliability than price right now, so sell certainty. The broker who locks that capacity in July isn't fighting for the same twenty trucks everyone else is chasing in September.

Say this

Use this to sell your process, not just your rate, to any shipper moving high-value freight. Tell them straight: "Two separate theft rings hit high-value freight this week for over four million combined, and both got through because someone trusted the MC number instead of calling the carrier directly." Then walk them through what you actually do differently, verifying phone numbers off file instead of the rate confirmation, flagging brand-new authorities, catching double-broker setups before the truck ever gets dispatched. Shippers in electronics, data center equipment, and specialty materials are nervous right now and looking for a broker who treats their freight like it's worth protecting. That nervousness is your opening, because "we don't lose loads" is a sales pitch this week in a way it wasn't three weeks ago.

Dry Van

$2.43/mi

Reefer

$2.68/mi

Flatbed

$3.53/mi

Diesel

$3.64/gal

This week's cold email line

Spot rates just posted their first real 30%-plus jump in three years, and I want to lock your capacity in before your contract renewal catches up to the market.

Best for contract shippers with renewals coming in Q3, particularly dry van accounts still priced off last year's depressed market, since the 31% spot surge gives you a hard number to open the conversation with this week and this week only before it becomes old news.

Outbound  ·  Done-for-you prospecting

The market gives you the angle.
Outbound puts it in the inbox.

Every angle above only earns money when it lands in front of a shipper. Outbound is the done-for-you version: I research your target shippers, write the sequences in your voice, and keep the follow-ups going while you cover freight.