Delmarva produce lanes pay $13 a mile while the reefer average slips

The freight numbers this week reward reading past the average. The national reefer rate slipped, but that headline buries where the money actually is -- and off the road, a run of legal and regulatory fights is worth a carrier's attention.

**The reefer average slipped; the good lanes did not.** The national refrigerated-produce rate eased to $4.18 a mile in the week to August 11, down about 2% on the week but still up 14.3% on the year. The average hides the opening: short hauls off the Delmarva peninsula topped our lane table -- Delaware-Maryland-Eastern Shore Virginia to Baltimore paid $13.00 a mile over 100 miles, to Philadelphia $10.71 over 140, and to New York $8.70 over 230. If you run a reefer and can position to the Eastern Shore, that is where this week's money sits; the long westbound produce hauls are the opposite trade, with South Texas border crossings to Los Angeles paying just $2.13 a mile over 1,600. Fuel stayed a headwind either way -- the national diesel average rose 3.7% to $5.454 a gallon.

**Broker liability keeps grinding through the courts.** FreightWaves reports two more cases are now proceeding on the question of when a freight broker can be held liable for a carrier it hires -- a fight whose outcome shapes what brokers demand of the carriers they book.

**Drivers are backing the English-proficiency rule.** Land Line reports truckers are telling FMCSA they support a proposed rule that would put English-proficiency violators out of service, arguing the issue is road safety rather than paperwork.

**The ATA lost its chief.** Chris Spear has departed as president and CEO of the American Trucking Associations effective immediately, per FreightWaves, cutting short a contract extension that had run through 2029 and leaving the industry's largest trade group searching for a successor.