Laredo adds Saturday border hours as diesel holds above $5.45

Cross-border drivers get some weekend time back. From Sept 5, the Laredo Port of Entry extends Saturday operational hours at the World Trade Bridge, the busiest commercial crossing on the southern border — more room to clear cargo without it bleeding into Monday.

The rest of the week was about fuel. The national on-highway diesel average was $5.454 a gallon in the week to 17 August, up 3.7%. That is a retail pump average including taxes, so fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less — read it as direction, not as what you will pay. Two takes on why it will not quit: FreightWaves argues the squeeze is refining capacity, not crude, while Transport Topics reports U.S. distillate stockpiles at a record seasonal low. Both point the same way — tight supply, not a barrel problem.

On rates, July's producer price indices stayed soft. Long-distance dry van truckload fell 1.3% to 195.6, and less-than-truckload dropped 4.6% to 293.7 — the steepest fall of any segment. These are indices, not dollars per mile: they track change from a base period and blend contract with spot business, so they turn later than the load board does.

The bright spot is refrigerated. FreightWaves reports reefer tender rejections are still running hot while van and flatbed cool, with intermodal savings near 33% pulling dry freight off the road. Tight reefer capacity is where the pricing power sits right now.

Worth your time elsewhere:

- **Broker transparency:** FMCSA's rulemaking is nearly two months past its target and still hasn't dropped, Land Line reports. Owner-operators waiting on rate-confirmation visibility keep waiting.

- **Parking as a perk:** FreightWaves on fleets using a nearby space to hold drivers — a $150 spot five minutes from home fixed one carrier's retention problem.

- **Equipment:** Einride plans to deploy 500 Tesla Semis across North America (The Trucker).

- **Permitting:** Oregon says its automated oversize-permit system saved nearly $1M and sped heavy-haul routing (Trucking Dive).

Nothing here changes tomorrow's dispatch, but two things are worth acting on: if you run Laredo, the longer Saturday window is real from Sept 5, and if you pull a reefer, demand is the firmest in freight right now.