Reefer firms to $4.21 a mile as Delmarva produce lanes lead again

The national average rate for refrigerated produce rose to $4.21 a mile in the week to 25 August, up 1.8% on the week and 14.7% on the year, according to USDA. Reefer keeps firming while most dry-freight benchmarks drift, and the cold trailer is again the one that paid.

The money was concentrated in short Mid-Atlantic runs off the summer harvest. Delaware, Maryland and Eastern Shore Virginia -- the Delmarva produce district -- to Baltimore topped all 73 lanes USDA quoted at $14.00 a mile, ahead of Delmarva to Philadelphia at $12.86 and Delmarva to New York at $9.57. It is the second straight week Delmarva has led the table. Out west, Washington's Yakima Valley to Seattle paid $8.21, and Georgia's Vidalia district to Atlanta paid $7.78.

But rate per mile flatters a short haul. Delmarva to Baltimore is about 100 miles, so $14 a mile is $1,400 for the load. The lanes that put the most in the bank are a notch longer: Delmarva to Atlanta at $5.71 a mile runs roughly 700 miles for $4,000; Delmarva to Boston at $7.11 covers about 450 miles for $3,200; North Carolina to New York at $5.77 is near 520 miles for $3,000. Same trailer, bigger paycheck -- if you can turn the miles.

The thin per-mile pay was on the long transcontinental produce hauls. The cheapest lane was Mexico crossings through South Texas to Los Angeles at $2.00 a mile over about 1,600 miles; Yakima Valley to Los Angeles ran $2.16. Those still gross more per load than a short Delmarva turn, but the reefer premium this week is in the short regional lanes, not the coast-to-coast ones.

One caveat on the headline number: it covers refrigerated produce only, and it is an unweighted mean across whichever lanes were active that week, so the mix shifts with the growing season. Treat the week-to-week moves in the lane table as more meaningful than in that average.