Jimmy Mac and co-host Dean Croke dive into the latest transportation and freight market trends with Dean Croke, Principal Market Analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics. Dean shares insights on warehouse growth, e-commerce logistics, emerging freight markets, data centers, and how AI and technology are reshaping the trucking industry.

Discover how shifts in freight, delivery methods, and supply chain infrastructure are creating new opportunities for drivers, carriers, and businesses. Dean also breaks down what the changes mean for the future of trucking and provides real-world examples from markets like Allentown and beyond.

Learn more at https://www.dat.com

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Jimmy Mac sits down with Dean Croke for a detailed look at seasonal freight pressure in the Pacific Northwest. Dean draws on his background as a former owner operator with more than two million miles on the road and his work as Principal Market Analyst at DAT Freight and Analytics. He explains how Christmas tree season creates fast shifts in demand, tighter capacity, and higher rates across key lanes.

Dean walks you through helicopter harvesting, a process created at Noble Mountain Tree Farm in Oregon. Helicopters lift bundled trees from the fields and drop them at central points every thirty seconds. Noble Mountain operates more than four thousand acres across four farms in the Willamette Valley. The season starts with long haul and international loads that move toward places like Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Texas. Reefers handle temperature sensitive shipments. Around that same time, wreaths move out for Wreaths Across America ceremonies on December 13. Containers also head toward Hawaii for retail orders.

Domestic demand rises in early to mid November. It tightens seven to ten days before Thanksgiving. Rail piggyback trailers help move high volume loads to large Western markets when truckload capacity shrinks. Some Douglas fir loads get covered in a ton of ice at a third party location before heading to Southern California. During the peak harvest, growers run seven days a week. More than sixty truckloads can move on the busiest days. Spot rates can rise by up to twenty percent in those three critical weeks before Thanksgiving.

Dean also shares quick facts that matter when judging market pressure. A Christmas tree takes seven to ten years to reach typical height. Roughly three hundred fifty million trees grow on farms nationwide. About twenty five to thirty million get harvested each year. A truck carries about six hundred trees. That works out to about fifty thousand truckloads. Oregon and Washington produce close to one third of the national supply.

Learn more at https://www.dat.com

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In this edition of DAT Guy on Road Gang Radio, host Jimmy Mac and co-host Dean Croke, Principal Market Analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics, break down the latest trends shaping the freight market this November. With Dean’s decades of real-world experience — from his 2 million over-the-road miles as an owner-operator to his role leading analytics at DAT — this is the deep dive every carrier, broker, and shipper needs.

Dean and Jimmy unpack the latest DAT market data, starting with how ELP and non-domicile CDL enforcement has fallen short of expectations. Despite ongoing discussions about tightening capacity, rates aren’t rising — they’re dropping, with October bid season seeing shippers negotiate rates down instead of up.

They explore the continuing carrier exits and the rise of “ghost fleets” — dormant equipment waiting to re-enter the market once conditions improve — and what that could mean for the next two years of freight recovery. In reefer markets, Halloween usually brings a spike in perishable shipments, but this year’s data tells a different story: volumes tanked 14%, possibly impacted by SNAP benefit suspensions amid government funding issues.

And finally, a brighter note on the highway: The People’s Tree, a 50-year-old red fir from Nevada’s Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, is on its way to Washington, D.C., in a custom-wrapped Knight-Swift Kenworth. The 3,700-mile cross-country journey celebrates the spirit of America’s public lands — and the drivers who make traditions like this possible.

Get the full DAT blog and insights at: https://www.dat.com/blog/author/dean-...

Learn more about DAT Freight & Analytics: https://www.dat.com

DAT Guy is part of Road Gang Radio on the RadioNemo Network, where trucking meets data-driven storytelling.

Thanks for tuning in! You can catch our shows and segments anytime on your favorite podcast app or listen live on YouTube, Facebook, iHeart, and RadioNemo.com!