Roundup

Drivers may get to pause the 14-hour clock as freight hunts for a floor

Regulators hand drivers a rare bit of flexibility on the 14-hour clock, while a soft freight market still shows a few places worth chasing.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Regulation set the tone again this week, but for once some of it points the driver's way — and underneath a soft set of freight numbers there are a couple of openings worth naming.

**Drivers may get to stop the 14-hour clock.** The FMCSA is pushing ahead with a pilot that would let drivers pause their 14-hour on-duty window for as long as three hours — the flexibility operators have been asking for so they can wait out traffic or heat instead of burning the clock parked. FreightWaves, The Trucker and Land Line all have it.

**Freight is hunting for a floor, and reefer is holding the pricing power.** FreightWaves' SONAR desk is asking whether the spot market has bottomed heading into Labor Day. Our own July figures say the ground is still soft — dry van producer prices slipped 1.3% on the month and LTL fell 4.6%, the sharpest drop of any segment — but refrigerated produce held at $4.14 a mile. If you have the cold trailer, that is the segment still paying.

**Fuel is still the biggest line item, and it is not the same number everywhere.** EIA's latest survey put national on-highway diesel at $5.454 a gallon. The map underneath it is wide: California runs $6.785 while the Lower Atlantic sits at $5.204 — about $1.58 a gallon, or roughly $237 on a 150-gallon fill. Where you buy is a routing decision, not just a stop.

**The non-domiciled CDL fight is going to court.** The FMCSA and New York are set to square off in late September over non-domiciled CDL rules and the federal funding tied to them — a dispute that could reshape who is licensed in the next cab over. FreightWaves has the filing.

**Eyeing your own authority? Mind the timing.** Two transportation attorneys told FreightWaves this may not be the moment to jump into the small-carrier market. Worth reading before you sign for a truck.

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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.