Roundup

Diesel nears records, but jobs are up and the pump map runs $1.69 wide

Fuel set fresh records this week, but hiring, a firm reefer rate and a widening regional pump gap are the parts a carrier can actually work with.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

This week's marquee number is diesel, again, near record territory. The useful news sits underneath it: payrolls turned up, reefer held its premium while the box rates slipped in July, and the gap between the cheapest and priciest pumps is wide enough to route around. Here is what a carrier can do with the week.

**Fill where it's cheap — the pump map is $1.69 wide.** EIA's Monday survey put the national diesel average at $5.652 a gallon in the week to Aug. 24, up 3.6% on the week and 52.4% on the year. The spread is the part you can act on: the Lower Atlantic sits at $5.350 while California runs $7.040 — $1.69 apart, or about $250 on a 150-gallon fill. The Gulf Coast, at $5.481, is another cheap place to plan a long fill. Push the big buys toward the lower PADDs. Trade outlets are reporting fresh record pump prices this week.

**If you own the reefer, run it.** Produce reefer rates averaged $4.21 a mile nationally in the week to Aug. 25, up 1.8% on the week and 14.7% on the year — while July's dry van, LTL and flatbed indices all fell, down 1.3%, 4.6% and 1.2% on the month. FreightWaves reports that trailer capacity is getting harder to add and shed than many fleets assume. The equipment you already have is the asset this month, and refrigerated is where it pays.

**Trucking added jobs.** FreightWaves reports the latest BLS employment data showed a strong upward move in truck-transportation payrolls — a demand signal after a long stretch running the other way. Good news, plainly.

**Cross-border is choppier than the record numbers suggest.** Land Line reports that while July set a record for cross-border freight value, truck counts, tonnage and mounting tariff uncertainty tell a softer story. If you run Laredo or the southern crossings, price that volatility into your rates.

**Heads-up through Indiana.** The Trucker reports Indiana State Police tallied more than 9,400 commercial-vehicle violations across roughly 4,700 inspections in August. If your lane runs I-65 or I-70, keep the paperwork current and the pre-trip tight.

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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.