Data brief

Dry van rates rose 5.1% in April 2026

Flatbed and LTL moved too. The monthly producer price indices for April 2026, and what they do and do not measure.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · assembled from data

Prices received by long-distance truckload carriers hauling general freight rose 5.1% in April 2026 to 201.0 on the Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index, from 191.3 a month earlier.

Flatbed and specialized rose 5.7% to 170.7. LTL rose 12.0% to 311.0.

Over twelve months the dry van index is up 8.1%.

These are indices rather than rates: they track change from a base period rather than dollars per mile, and they blend contract and spot business, so they move later and more gently than the spot market. They are, however, the only free public measure that separates dry van, flatbed and LTL.

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Figure 1

General freight trucking, long-distance truckload

Index, Dec 2003 = 100 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Dry van truckload. An index, not a rate. It tracks change from a base period rather than dollars per mile, and it blends contract and spot business, so it moves later and more gently than a spot rate would. NAICS 484121.
Figure 2

Specialized freight trucking, long-distance

Index, Dec 2003 = 100 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Flatbed and specialized. The nearest public proxy for flatbed, but it is broader than flatbed alone: NAICS 484230 covers every kind of specialised long-distance hauling except household goods. No free source isolates flatbed by itself.
Figure 3

General freight trucking, long-distance less-than-truckload

Index, Dec 2003 = 100 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics LTL. LTL pricing is set very differently from truckload -- published tariffs, negotiated discounts and accessorials -- so this index is not comparable to the truckload one in level, only in direction. NAICS 484122.