Freight indices slipped again in July, but every segment sits above a year ago

The producer price index for all trucking fell 1.9% in July to 205.4, and the softness ran right across the board. General freight was down 2.3%, less-than-truckload down 4.6%, specialized and flatbed off around 0.7%, and even short-radius local work slipped 0.3%. On the month, nothing rose.

Step back to the year, though, and the picture flips. All trucking is up 8.2% on July 2025. General freight is up 8.7%, LTL up 10.7%, and the two standouts -- refrigerated and household-goods moving -- are up 14.7% and 15.5%. Every freight line the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks is priced above where it sat twelve months ago. July was a dip in a line that is still well off its floor.

These are index numbers, not dollars a mile. The PPI measures change from a December 2003 base, blends contract with spot business, and July's readings are preliminary and can revise. The all-trucking figure is a weighted blend that can hide segments moving in opposite directions -- which is exactly what the monthly and annual numbers are doing right now, so read it as a headline, not a decision.

The one line moving against the driver is fuel. The national average retail diesel price rose 3.8% to $5.454 a gallon in the week of 17 August and is up 46.9% on the year -- the single biggest annual move on the board, and a cost, not revenue. It is a pump average including taxes: fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less, and the gap widens when prices jump like this, so treat it as direction. Still, a rate index up 8% against a fuel line up 47% is the squeeze in one sentence, and it is why the surcharge math matters more than the monthly rate wobble.

The segment holding up best week to week is reefer. Produce reefer rates averaged $4.21 a mile in the week to 25 August, up 1.8% on the week and 14.7% on the year. That average is produce-only and an unweighted mean across whichever lanes were running, so it shifts with the growing season and the lane table tells you more than the headline -- but the direction is up, and it is the cold trailer, again, carrying the load.

So the read for the week: the monthly softening is real and it is broad, but you are still hauling at rates well above a year ago in every segment, with reefer and household-goods moving leading the way. The thing eating those gains is diesel, not a rate collapse.

**Elsewhere this week**

- Momentum is building in Congress for higher truck weight limits under the Build America 250 Act. (The Trucker)
- Cross-border freight between Texas and Mexico is surging, with Nuevo Leon's governor pitching a border boom. (FreightWaves)
- U.S. port volumes slowed in July despite pockets of strength. (Transport Topics)