Roundup

Crude slips 1.1% as diesel holds a record and enforcement ramps on I-80

The pump is still at a national-record $5.967 a gallon, and inspection blitzes in Indiana and Nebraska are a reminder to run clean.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Brent crude eased 1.1% to $107.61 a barrel this week, according to Transport Topics -- the first step back after a run driven by the closure of Saudi Arabia's East-West pipeline. It has not reached the pump. The national average diesel price is $5.967 a gallon in the latest weekly EIA survey, a record, up 6.6% on the week and 58% on the year.

That pump figure is a retail average including taxes; fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less, so read it as direction, not as what you will pay. The direction finally has a bright spot at the top of the barrel -- though retail diesel lags crude by weeks, and one week of oil is not a pump price.

Two enforcement stories are worth a driver's attention. Indiana State Police ran a work-zone commercial-vehicle operation on Interstate 70 that issued more than 50 violations and made 16 arrests, The Trucker reports. And Nebraska troopers pulled what they call the largest drug seizure by volume in state-patrol history -- $50 million worth -- out of a semi on Interstate 80 during a commercial inspection, per FreightWaves. Neither is a worry if your logs and load are clean; both are a reason to slow down in the cones and keep the cab inspection-ready.

On rates, the picture stayed firm outside flatbed. The producer price index for dry van truckload rose 1.9% in August to 207.6, and less-than-truckload jumped 4.5% to 306.8; specialized and flatbed freight slipped 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 spot rate would. Software executive Tom McLeod told Transport Topics the rebound is real, driven by excess capacity leaving the market after a four-year rate recession, and urged carriers to hold rate discipline as freight rebalances.

Reefer produce held its ground at $4.11 a mile nationally, down a fractional 0.3% on the week but still 8.2% above a year ago. That average masks big lane swings -- Delmarva short-hauls were again the week's top payers. If you're choosing where to point the truck, the box side is firm, flatbed is the soft spot, and the reefer premium is still there for anyone set up to run cold.

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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

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.
Figure 3

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 4

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 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.