Roundup

Reefer firms while dry van, flatbed and LTL indices all slipped in July

Refrigerated rates rose 1.8% to $4.21 a mile even as every producer price index for trucking fell; diesel held its climb at a $5.454 national average.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Reefer was the one revenue line that firmed this week. The national refrigerated rate rose 1.8% to $4.21 a mile in the week to 25 August, and sits 14.7% above a year ago -- the cold trailer is where the money moved while the monthly index board went the other way. That figure covers refrigerated produce only and is an unweighted average across whichever lanes ran that week, so read the direction, not the decimal.

Every producer price index for trucking fell in July. Long-distance dry van truckload slipped 1.3% to 195.6, flatbed and specialized freight eased 1.2% to 168.2, and less-than-truckload led the retreat, down 4.6% to 293.7. The all-trucking index fell 1.9% to 205.4. Specialized held up best of the falling segments; LTL fell hardest.

Two things to keep in mind about those numbers. They are indices, not dollars a mile: they track change from a 2003 base and blend contract with spot business, so they turn later and more gently than a spot rate. And for all the red ink, every segment still sits well above a year ago -- dry van up 8.1%, flatbed up 9.4%, LTL up 10.7%. July was a soft month, not a collapse.

On the cost side, diesel stayed the pressure it has been. The national pump average was $5.454 a gallon in the week to 17 August, up 3.7% on the week and 46.9% on the year. That is a retail average including tax; contract buyers at the truck stop pay less. Where you fill still matters most: the Lower Atlantic averaged $5.204 and California $6.785, about $1.58 apart across the country.

Away from the data, three things worth a driver's attention:

- Momentum is building in Washington for higher truck weight limits, folded into the Build America 250 Act now working through the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. [The Trucker]

- Texas-Mexico freight is surging, with Nuevo Leon's governor pitching a cross-border boom -- cross-border lanes are busy right now. [FreightWaves]

- The South is lining up a major freight-corridor rebuild: more than 30 bridges and 30 miles of highway. Expect construction where it lands. [Land Line]

So what do you do with it? If you can run reefer, that is where the rate firmed this week. Watch the fuel map more than the headline diesel number, and treat July's index dip as a monthly wobble that still leaves rates above a year ago.

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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

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 3

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 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

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.