Roundup

Labor Day tightens capacity, and the reefer premium is where it pays

Freight pulled tight over the holiday, and the week's news split into where that helps you and where fuel still bites.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Labor Day did what it usually does to the freight market — pulled trucks tight — and this week's news split cleanly into where that helps you and where the costs still bite.

**Capacity is tightening.** FreightWaves' SONAR data shows tender rejections climbing faster than in recent years as the holiday squeezed the market — the clearest capacity signal in months, and the kind that hands carriers a little leverage back on spot loads. [FreightWaves](https://www.freightwaves.com/news/tender-rejections-jump-14-labor-day-tightens-freight)

**Reefer is where the premium sits.** Our national produce reefer rate held at $4.21 a mile, up 1.8% on the week and 14.7% on the year, while the dry van truckload freight index eased 1.3% in July — still 8.1% above a year ago. The Delmarva produce lanes are carrying it: Delaware-Maryland-Eastern Shore Virginia into Baltimore paid $14 a mile last week. If you've got the trailer, this is the freight to chase. [Reefer rates](https://news.open-trucker.com/trends/reefer-national-rpm/)

**Fuel is still the drag.** The national diesel average rose to $5.652 a gallon, up 3.6% on the week and 52.4% on the year — no softening there, and it is why the reefer premium is worth more than the sticker rate. [Fuel page](https://news.open-trucker.com/trends/diesel-us/)

**Highway money keeps flowing.** A stopgap funding bill signed this week averted a government shutdown and kept surface-transportation programs funded — a quiet piece of good news for anyone whose lanes depend on federal road dollars. [The Trucker](https://www.thetrucker.com/trucking-news/the-nation/surface-transportation-among-projects-funded-by-government-resolution)

**Staged-crash crackdown.** A bipartisan bill would make staging a collision a federal crime, aimed squarely at the fraud rings that target commercial trucks and push everyone's insurance up. [The Trucker](https://www.thetrucker.com/trucking-news/the-nation/bipartisan-bill-would-make-staged-crashes-a-federal-crime)

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Figure 1

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.
Figure 2

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.