Roundup

Carriers say the rate rebound is real as an oil spike lifts diesel again

August producer prices put dry van, LTL and general freight up double digits on the year, with flatbed the lone segment still slipping — and the diesel behind most fuel surcharges rose 6.6% in a week.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Long-distance dry van truckload prices rose 1.9% in August to 207.6 on the Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index, and they are now up 13.9% on the year — one of three big freight segments running double digits ahead of 2025.

Less-than-truckload led the board, up 4.5% on the month to 306.8 and 14.3% higher than a year ago. General freight rose 2.6% to 227.6, up 13.4% on the year. The all-trucking index, a weighted blend of every segment, gained 1.9% to 213.3 and sits 11.6% above last August. These are indices, not rates: they track change from a base period rather than dollars per mile, and they blend contract with spot business, so they turn later and more gently than the spot market does.

The one segment still going the other way is flatbed. The BLS specialized-freight index — the nearest public proxy for flatbed, though it covers more than flatbed alone — fell 0.8% in August to 166.2. It is still 8.0% up on the year, but it has not joined the box-freight recovery.

Carrier voices caught up with the data this week. McLeod Software's Tom McLeod urged rate discipline, arguing the rebound is being driven by excess hauling capacity leaving the market after a four-year rate recession. Radiant Logistics beat its fiscal fourth-quarter numbers and pointed to a tightening domestic surface-transport market.

The cost side moved the wrong way. The national average diesel pump price rose 6.6% in the week to 7 September, to $5.967 a gallon, and is up more than 58% on the year. That is a retail average including taxes — fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less, and the gap widens when prices move fast, so read it as direction, not as your receipt. Trade coverage tied the latest jump to a fresh oil spike, with the DOE/EIA benchmark used for most fuel surcharges hitting a record as crude climbed on Middle East supply disruption.

Where you fill still swings the bill: the Lower Atlantic averaged $5.605 a gallon last week, the cheapest region, while California ran $7.764 — more than two dollars higher per gallon.

For produce haulers, refrigerated rates held. The national reefer average was $4.11 a mile in the week to 8 September, off a quarter of a percent on the week but still 8.2% up on the year and well above the dry van box. It is an unweighted mean across whichever produce lanes were active, so the mix shifts with the season — read the lane table, not the average.

Elsewhere for drivers: OOIDA's Land Line reports truck parking added in one state and banned in another, and a broker-transparency fight between Pink Cheetah and TQL that may hinge on a single FMCSA email. Several truck stops and vendors marked National Truck Driver Appreciation Week with fuel-card giveaways and waived fees.

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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

General freight trucking

Index, Dec 2003 = 100 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics General freight. Includes local delivery, which behaves nothing like long-haul.
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

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 6

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 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.