Stories
Everything the desk has filed, newest first.
Sector All · Fuel · Refrigerated · Dry van · Flatbed · LTL · RSS
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Explainer
Motus replaced FMCSA registration in May. One change matters more than the rest.
New USDOT and docket numbers are now issued at random. Anything that reads a high number as a new carrier is now reading noise.
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Explainer
Short reefer hauls paid $14 a mile last week, long ones $2 -- why per-mile misleads
Rate per mile is a poor way to compare loads of different lengths -- total pay and pay per day are what fill the tank.
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Explainer
USDA's $4.14 reefer rate is produce only, and lanes run $2 to $14 a mile
It is the only free lane-level dollar rate in the U.S. — an unweighted average of whatever produce lanes moved that week, which is why short hauls read so high.
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Explainer
What the freight PPI measures, and why it is not dollars a mile
Dry van truckload read 195.6 in July, down 1.3% on the month, but that number tracks change from a 2003 base and never converts to a rate per mile.
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Explainer
The $5.454 diesel price is a pump average, not your contract rate
The EIA figure includes taxes and comes from retail pumps surveyed every Monday — fleets buying on contract pay less, and the gap widens when prices move fast.
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Explainer
Your fuel surcharge in three numbers, with diesel at $5.454 a gallon
A subtraction and a division turn the EIA weekly average into cents per mile -- the number drivers get wrong is which price to plug in.
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Explainer
What a PADD is, and why it sets your fuel surcharge
The government sorts the country into five fuel districts; this week they ran from $5.237 a gallon on the Gulf Coast to $6.203 on the West Coast.