On the heels of a massive winter storm that swept across dozens of U.S. states over the weekend, spot rates for trucking freight loads are expected to rise for dry van and, especially, refrigerated equipment, according to a weekly report from Truckstop.com and FTR Transportation Intelligence.

The numbers aren’t in yet, but past winter storms provide a solid comparison, the report said. For example, shippers often seek out insulated refrigerated vans during extreme cold temperatures to haul typically dry van freight that is susceptible to freezing. A similar storm in mid-January 2024 led to sizable spot rate increases for both van types, even as rates typically would have fallen significantly. And rates then resumed their post-holiday normalization the following week.

This year, as one measure of the broad impact of “Winter Storm Fern” on national logistics flows, federal regulators on Saturday issued a Regional Emergency Declaration providing temporary hours-of-service (HOS) relief for certain motor carriers and drivers due to severe winter storms and extreme cold impacting multiple states. Such moves are typical before large storms, but this one was notable for its sheer size, covering 40 states (AL, AR, CO, CT, DE, DC, FL, GA, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MD, MA, MI, MS, MN, MO, MT, NE, NH, NJ, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, RI, SC, SD, TN, TX, VT, VA, WV, WI, WY), according to the Federal Motor Carrer Safety Administration (FMCSA).

Likewise, transportation provider Averitt on Monday announced that pickup and delivery locations had been affected across 14 states (AL, AR, GA, KY, LA, MS, MI, NC, OH, OK, SC, TN, TX, VA).

And even as those impacts continue to ripple across the country, emergency recovery group the American Logistics Aid Network (ALAN) said Winter Storm Fern had brought heavy snow and ice to approximately 35 states, causing substantial disruptions affecting supply chains, including:

• thousands of flight/rail service cancellations
• widespread power outages
• suspended trucking operations, and the
• restricted flow of critical goods like food, fuel and pharmaceuticals

That much is typical for major weather events, but ALAN said Fern’s impact could linger. “However unlike other winter storms, it has affected most of the country rather than one or two states or regions. And for some areas, there is no imminent end to the dangerously cold conditions that could delay both recovery efforts and the ability to get back to ‘business as usual’,” ALAN Executive Director Kathy Fulton said in a statement.

The group plans to post requests for recovery help in coming days as post-storm assessments are completed, using its Disaster Micro-site and Supply Chain Intelligence Center.