Roundup

Capacity tightens into an early peak as diesel climbs 6.6% in a week

Rising tender rejections and a shrinking carrier base point to a firmer spot market into peak, even as the national diesel average reached $5.967 a gallon.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Freight capacity is tightening into what looks like an early peak season, and that is the line that matters most to an owner-operator this week. FreightWaves reports tender rejections have jumped across the country in an unusual post-Labor Day surge, and separately that the carrier exodus is "growing, not slowing." Both hand leverage back to trucks: when shippers cannot get loads covered at the contract price, freight spills to the spot market and rates firm.

The paid data backs the direction. Long-distance dry van truckload prices rose 1.9% in August on the Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index, to 207.6, up 13.9% on the year. Less-than-truckload rose 4.5% in the same month. Flatbed and specialised was the one segment that slipped, down 0.8% to 166.2. These are indices, not dollars per mile -- they track change from a base period and blend contract with spot business, so they turn later and more gently than the spot market you actually book.

The cost side is where it bites. The national on-highway diesel average rose 6.6% in the week to September 7, to $5.967 a gallon, up 58.4% on the year, on Energy Information Administration figures. Land Line reports federal regulators have issued an hours-of-service waiver for drivers hauling fuel, to keep supply moving through the spike -- worth knowing if you run tanker.

Where you fill still swings the bill. California's pump average is $7.764 a gallon and the Lower Atlantic's is $5.605, a $2.16 spread across the map in the same week's survey. Read the pump figure as direction rather than what a contract fleet pays, but the regional gap is real and routable.

Reefer held roughly flat: the national refrigerated produce average was $4.11 a mile in the week to September 8, off 0.25%. That is an unweighted mean across whatever lanes ran, so the lane table matters more than the average -- Delmarva short hauls into Baltimore and Philadelphia were still paying double digits a mile.

On the border, FreightWaves reports Mexico lifted an empty-truck restriction that had stranded some 700 tractors at Eagle Pass, Texas. Cross-border capacity that was jammed should now clear.

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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

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 5

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 6

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.
Figure 7

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.