Roundup

A fuel-hauler HOS waiver and a reopened border lead the freight week

Record diesel dominates the headlines, but tightening capacity and a resolved Eagle Pass backup are where the week's decisions are.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Diesel is the number setting the week, but the more useful development for anyone hauling it is regulatory. With pump prices at a national average of $5.967 a gallon in the week to September 7 -- up 6.6% in a single week -- a federal hours-of-service waiver is now in effect for drivers moving fuel, meant to keep supply lines from seizing up. [Land Line has the detail](https://landline.media/record-fuel-prices-drive-hours-of-service-relief/).

Read the diesel figure as direction, not as what you will pay: it is a retail pump average including taxes, and fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less, with the gap widening when prices move this fast.

Cross-border drivers got friction removed. Mexican customs reversed a restriction on empty trucks entering Piedras Negras after the measure stranded about 700 tractors at Eagle Pass, Texas, [FreightWaves reports](https://www.freightwaves.com/news/mexico-lifts-empty-truck-restriction-after-700-tractors-stranded-at-border). The wider picture is less settled -- [Canada bans and a USMCA deadlock](https://www.freightwaves.com/news/usmca-deadlock-canada-bans-what-it-means-for-trucking) are reshaping some lanes, and Trump has [barred Canadian goods from federal purchases](https://www.ttnews.com/articles/trump-bans-canadian-goods), per Transport Topics.

On the demand side, the signals point up. FreightWaves flags [tender rejections climbing across the country](https://www.freightwaves.com/news/freight-market-alert-why-us-tender-rejections-are-skyrocketing) in an unusual post-Labor Day surge -- the clearest sign capacity is tightening into an early peak. Carriers told the outlet the [capacity exodus is growing, not slowing](https://www.freightwaves.com/news/carriers-tl-capacity-exodus-growing-not-slowing) as enforcement pushes noncompliant drivers out. Equipment makers are betting on it: net trailer orders jumped to 24,200 units in August, a 55% rise on July, [ACT Research reported via The Trucker](https://www.thetrucker.com/trucking-news/business/act-preliminary-net-trailer-order-activity-continues-to-burn-brightly-in-august).

Where the data itself lands: dry van truckload rose 1.9% in August to 207.6 on the Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index, and less-than-truckload rose 4.5% to 306.8, while specialized freight -- the nearest public proxy for flatbed -- slipped 0.8% to 166.2, the one segment moving the wrong way. Refrigerated produce eased 0.25% to $4.11 a mile in the week to September 8, still up 8.2% on the year.

Those are indices, not dollars-per-mile rates: they track change from a base period rather than a per-mile price and blend contract with spot business, so they turn later and more gently than the spot market does.

One more for anyone financing equipment: the Federal Reserve raised its main interest rate a quarter point, citing stubborn inflation, [Trucking Dive reports](https://www.truckingdive.com/news/fed-hikes-main-interest-rate-by-quarter-point-citing-stubborn-inflation/830638/).

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Figure 1

On-highway diesel price, National average

Dollars per gallon Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration National average. A retail pump average including taxes, surveyed every Monday. Fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less than this, and the gap widens when prices move fast -- so read it as direction, not as what you will pay.
Figure 2

General freight trucking, long-distance truckload

Index, Dec 2003 = 100 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Dry van truckload. An index, not a rate. It tracks change from a base period rather than dollars per mile, and it blends contract and spot business, so it moves later and more gently than a spot rate would. NAICS 484121.
Figure 3

General freight trucking, long-distance less-than-truckload

Index, Dec 2003 = 100 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics LTL. LTL pricing is set very differently from truckload -- published tariffs, negotiated discounts and accessorials -- so this index is not comparable to the truckload one in level, only in direction. NAICS 484122.
Figure 4

Specialized freight trucking, long-distance

Index, Dec 2003 = 100 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Flatbed and specialized. The nearest public proxy for flatbed, but it is broader than flatbed alone: NAICS 484230 covers every kind of specialised long-distance hauling except household goods. No free source isolates flatbed by itself.
Figure 5

Refrigerated produce truck rate, national average

Dollars per mile Source: USDA Agricultural Marketing Service Reefer rate per mile. Refrigerated produce only, and an unweighted mean across whichever lanes were active that week -- so the mix shifts with the growing season. Treat week-to-week moves in the lane table as more meaningful than in this average.