Truckload freight volumes rebounded modestly in December 2025 while spot truckload rates surged to their highest monthly averages of 2025, according to DAT Freight & Analytics.
“Peak-season spot rates showed up in December,” says Ken Adamo, DAT chief of analytics. “A combination of seasonality, weather, the quirks of the holiday calendar, and constrained capacity drove prices substantially higher, as opposed to stronger freight volumes.”
Key takeaways:
· The DAT Truckload Volume Index (TVI), which measures demand for truckload services, increased for van and refrigerated freight:
Van TVI: 222, up 4% month over month but down 3% year over year
Refrigerated TVI: 190, up 7% month over month and virtually unchanged year over year
Flatbed TVI: 249, down 1% month over month and up 3% year over year
DAT Freight & Analytics
· While freight volume gains were limited, spot market rates climbed sharply in December 2025 as seasonal demand collided with severe weather that snarled ecommerce networks and tightened logistics capacity. Monthly average spot market rates to move van and reefer freight reached their highest levels of the year:
Spot van rate: $2.29 per mile, up 20 cents from November
Spot reefer rate: $2.69 per mile, up 15 cents
Spot flatbed rate: $2.53 per mile, up 6 cents
· Spot van and reefer rates were nearly 9% higher year over year. The spot flatbed rate increased 6% compared to December 2024.
· Contract truckload rates remained largely flat in December.
Contract van rate: $2.46 per mile, unchanged month over month
Contract reefer rate: $2.79 per mile, down 2 cents
Contract flatbed rate: $3.05 per mile, down 2 cents
· For van and reefer freight, the spread between average spot and contract rates narrowed to its smallest gap since March 2022, underscoring shippers’ urgency to secure truckload capacity in December 2025.
“Tariffs, regulatory chatter, and changes on the technology side made 2025 a very busy year operationally, yet pricing and volumes barely moved,” Adamo says. “Heading into Q1 2026, normal financial pressures will trim capacity and pinch freight broker margins, and if tariffs are overturned, we could see a chaotic couple of quarters as imports surge. But the longer this flat market continues, the more we’ll need something big and sustained to invert it.”
