Roundup

Rates firm across the box, but a record diesel week eats into August's raise

Dry van, LTL and general freight all rose in August; flatbed slipped 0.8%, and diesel jumped 6.6% in a week to a record $5.967 a gallon.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

The national on-highway diesel average rose 6.6% in the week to 7 September, to a record $5.967 a gallon -- up 58.4% on the year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That single week's move outran a full month of linehaul gains: dry van truckload rose 1.9% in August and general freight 2.6%. If your fuel surcharge hasn't kept pace, this is the week to reopen that line with your brokers.

Where you buy still matters. The pump average runs from $5.605 in the Lower Atlantic to $7.764 in California, with the West Coast at $6.987 and New England near $5.990. It is a retail average including taxes, surveyed each Monday; fleets buying on contract pay less, and the gap widens when prices move this fast -- so read it as direction, not as what you'll pay at the island.

The rate side, for once, is the good news, and it should read that way. Less-than-truckload led the box in August, up 4.5% to 306.8 on the Bureau of Labor Statistics producer price index and up 14.3% on the year. Dry van truckload rose 1.9% to 207.6, general freight 2.6% to 227.6. Flatbed was the lone decliner, off 0.8% to 166.2, though still up 8.0% over the year. All are preliminary August index readings, not dollars per mile: they blend contract and spot business and turn later than the spot market, and the flatbed figure covers all specialized long-distance hauling, not flatbed alone.

Refrigerated produce held its ground. The national average stayed at $4.11 a mile in the week to 8 September, off a hair at -0.3% but up 8.2% on the year. The Delmarva-to-Baltimore short haul again topped the lane table at $12.50 a mile -- a reminder that the weekly lanes, which shift with the growing season, tell you more than the average does.

Around the numbers this week:

- Truckload capacity is still leaving, not returning, FreightWaves reports, as small carriers fold under the cost side even as demand firms into an early peak.
- Mexico lifted a restriction that had stranded roughly 700 empty tractors at the southern border, easing a cross-border bottleneck, per FreightWaves.
- Preliminary net trailer orders "continued to burn brightly" in August, ACT Research said via The Trucker -- a sign fleets are still buying equipment for the months ahead.
- Record fuel prices are driving hours-of-service relief, Land Line reports, the regulatory echo of the diesel line above.

The shape of the week: rates are firming, capacity is thinning, and demand is pulling forward -- all of which favors the driver holding the truck. The offset is diesel, and it is moving faster than any of them. Net the two before you take the load, and put the fuel number in writing.

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Figure 1

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.
Figure 2

On-highway diesel price, California

Dollars per gallon Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration California. 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.
Figure 3

On-highway diesel price, Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C)

Dollars per gallon Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C). 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.
Figure 4

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.
Figure 5

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 6

General freight trucking

Index, Dec 2003 = 100 Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics General freight. Includes local delivery, which behaves nothing like long-haul.
Figure 7

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 8

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.