Diesel climbs 3.7%, and the coast you fill on is worth $1.58 a gallon

Fuel went up across the board this week and rates eased a little, but the numbers worth acting on are in the gaps — between regions at the pump, and between where rates are now and where they were a year ago.

**The pump rose, but the map is the play.** EIA's Monday survey put the national diesel average at $5.454 a gallon, up 3.7% on the week and 46.9% on the year. That national figure hides a wide spread: the Lower Atlantic ($5.204) and Gulf Coast ($5.237) are running about $1.58 under California ($6.785) — roughly $237 on a 150-gallon fill. If your lanes give you any choice, fill south and east. The Gulf Coast is also up the most year over year, at 56.8%, so the gap is worth watching rather than banking on.

**Rates softened week to week, but they're still ahead of last year.** Our dry van truckload index slipped 1.3% for the month to 195.6 and the national reefer rate eased to $4.14 a mile, yet both sit well above a year ago — dry van up 8.1%, reefer up 9.1%. That is the story under the week's noise: fuel up, rates off slightly on the week, margins still better than twelve months back. FreightWaves walked through the same fuel-up, spot-rates-down squeeze.

**Brake Safety Week is on right now.** CVSA's annual inspection blitz runs through Aug. 29, which makes out-of-adjustment brakes the fast route to an out-of-service sticker this week. Worth a careful pre-trip before you roll.

**Cross-border freight just got more expensive.** U.S.-Canada trade talks collapsed over medium- and heavy-duty truck tariffs, and 50% levies on many Canadian goods are now in effect. Transport Topics has the detail on why the trucks themselves were the sticking point — if you run north-south, the cost picture has shifted under you.