Flatbed held the line in July while diesel outran every rate

Freight rates cooled across the board in July, but not evenly — and diesel is still the number setting the pace. Here is what a carrier can actually do with the week.

**Flatbed held up best.** Specialized freight — the nearest public proxy for flatbed — is up 9.4% over the year, ahead of dry van at 8.1% and long-haul general freight at 8.9%. It slipped 1.2% in July like nearly everything else, so this is no boom; but of the freight segments, specialized revenue has given back the least. If you are choosing what to run, that is the deck that has defended its rate. [Our flatbed trend](/trends/ppi-flatbed-specialized/).

**Fuel is the number that won't quit.** The national diesel average sits at $5.454 a gallon, up 46.9% over the year, while our rate indices rose roughly 8% over the same stretch. That gap — costs climbing far faster than revenue — is the squeeze Transport Topics documents in its look at private-fleet economics, where fuel, driver pay and insurance are all pressing at once. Worth reading if you set your own rates. [Our diesel trend](/trends/diesel-us/).

**Chris Spear is out at ATA.** The American Trucking Associations' longtime president and CEO left the group effective immediately, The Trucker reports — a leadership gap at the industry's largest lobbying voice heading into a live regulatory season.

**Drayage keeps consolidating.** RoadOne acquired Charleston-based Higgins Transport Service, extending its intermodal footprint at the port, per FreightWaves — the kind of tuck-in that quietly reshapes who is dispatching in a regional market.

**A cautious read on ag freight.** Deere narrowed its profit outlook and told investors it expects a farm recovery in 2027, Transport Topics reports. That squares with our own signals: the grain truck-use index is running 6.3% below a year ago, so the agricultural lanes stay soft for now — plan capacity accordingly rather than banking on a near-term rebound.