Diesel sets another record, but reefer is where the month pays

This week brought another record at the diesel pump, coast to coast. But the number that pays your mortgage is not the pump average -- it is which trailer you pull and which lane you run, and both moved in your favor if you were watching.

**Reefer is still the trailer to have.** Refrigerated produce 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 the dry van index slipped 1.3% in July. The premium is widest on the East Coast produce lanes -- Delmarva to Baltimore cleared $14 a mile last week. If you have the reefer, this is the month to run it.

**Diesel set another record, and the map is $1.69 wide.** EIA put the cause on elevated crack spreads and higher crude, not taxes or a supply shock. The national average hit $5.652 a gallon, up 3.6% on the week and 52.4% on the year, with the Gulf Coast climbing hardest at 4.7%. The spread is the routing tool: California pumps run $7.040 against the Lower Atlantic's $5.350 -- $1.69 a gallon, or about $250 on a 150-gallon fill. Fill east before you head west.

**Texas moves on fake digital CDLs.** Transport Topics reports a proposed Texas law aimed at fraudulent digital Mexican commercial licenses -- worth watching if you run border freight and compete against carriers who cut that corner.

**Texas also has a $138 billion road plan.** Land Line covers the state's long-range plan to keep its freight corridors moving, which matters to anyone living on I-10, I-35 or the border crossings.

**Hiring came back.** The U.S. economy added 162,000 jobs last month, Transport Topics reports -- a demand signal worth more to a carrier than any single week's rate print.