Shippers attending the National Industrial Transportation League's (NITL) annual conference in Fort Lauderdale, have been told to be ready "significant freight rate increases" across all modes of transport.

US freight rates rose significantly in 2014, and according to analysts at the NITL conference and TransComp Exhibition, surface freight rates in North America are only moving in one direction.

The question is how high they will go and what businesses can do to soften the blow, said the Newark's Journal of Commerce.

"As we head into 2015 and beyond, be prepared for significant rate increases across all modes," said Justin Long, transport analyst at equity research firm Stephens.

"We expect truck pricing to rise for multiple years," said Ken Hoexter, analyst at Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, 

Less-than-truckload carriers instituted a second round of general rate increases this year for only the third time in the past 20 years, Mr Hoexter said. "The one guaranteed is that you're going to see price increases. The unknown is how high those increases will be."

Even on the rails, where shippers at NITL say service remains "degraded," prices are moving inexorably upwards, Mr Long said.

"One of the rails is seeing five per cent increases on recent contract renewals, and they expect mid-single-digit increases next year," he said.

The surge in pricing is directly tied to supply and demand - higher demand, and tighter surface transportation capacity on the roads and on the rails, the analysts said.

Truck safety regulations in the pipeline at the Department of Transportation will take another 10 to 15 per cent of capacity out of the trucking market, Mr Larkin said. He doesn't have much hope for near-term improvement in rail capacity, either.

Logistics companies and shippers at the NITL conference are looking for ways to ease the pain, especially greater collaboration.

"I haven't met a shipper yet who hasn't had a rate increase this year," said Armada Supply Chain Solutions vice president Paul Newbourne.

Most of the truck rate increases have been in the mid- to high-single-digit percentage range, Mr Newbourne said, "which is high compared with what we've seen in the past couple of years." He has known shippers to accept rate hikes as high as 40 per cent to secure capacity.