Roundup

Appreciation Week perks arrive as diesel sets another record

Free fuel cards and waived fees this week; underneath, freight is firming while the pump keeps climbing.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

It is National Truck Driver Appreciation Week, and several chains are putting real money behind it. Truck Centers Inc. is running $1,000 fuel-card giveaways, Rutter's is handing professional drivers a free drink through the week, and Fleetworthy is waiving its $25 activation fee on toll management for owner-operators who sign up. If you pass any of them, it is money on the table.

Underneath the thank-yous, the freight market is firming. The August producer price indices back it up: dry van truckload rose 1.9% to 207.6, all-trucking rose 1.9% to 213.3, and less-than-truckload jumped 4.5% to 306.8 on the Bureau of Labor Statistics series. Flatbed and specialized was the lone holdout, slipping 0.8% to 166.2. These are indices, not dollars per mile -- they track change from a 2003 base and blend contract with spot business, so they turn later and more gently than a load board does.

The demand signals point the same way. U.S. container imports rose 3.8% in August to 2.6 million TEUs, their third-highest month on record, per FreightWaves, and Trucking Dive reports the ocean peak season is running later than expected on resilient consumer demand. Daimler Truck is adding assembly staff in Mexico as truck demand rises, per Transport Topics -- builders do not hire ahead of a market they expect to fade. Tom McLeod used the moment to urge rate discipline as the capacity that piled up over a four-year rate recession finally winnows out.

The cost side is where it hurts. The national average diesel price hit $5.967 a gallon in the week to 7 September, up 6.6% in a single week and 58% on the year -- a record, and the benchmark most fuel surcharges are set against. Where you fill still swings the bill: California pumps average $7.764 while the Lower Atlantic sits at $5.605, a $2.16 spread. The driver is upstream -- Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline shutdown after an attack has oil markets in crisis, per The Trucker. Read the pump figure as direction, not what you will pay; fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less.

In the C-suite, Hub Group brought back David Yeager as CEO, replacing his son amid the company's accounting turmoil, per Trucking Dive.

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Figure 1

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 2

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 3

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 4

Truck transportation, all

Index, Dec 2003 = 100 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics All trucking. A weighted blend of everything below it, so it can mask segments moving in opposite directions. Useful as a headline, poor for a decision.
Figure 5

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 6

On-highway diesel price, California

Dollars per gallon Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration California. 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 7

On-highway diesel price, Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C)

Dollars per gallon Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C). 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.