Roundup

Reefer opens a gap on dry van — $4.21 a mile and still climbing

Refrigerated rates are rising while the box and flatbed soften and diesel jumped everywhere — here is where the openings are.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Two rate lines are pulling apart this week, and the split is where the money is. Refrigerated freight is paying more while the dry box and the flatbed lose ground, diesel jumped across every region, and Washington is leaning harder on enforcement. Here's what a small carrier can do with it.

**Reefer is the trailer to have right now.** Our national reefer rate hit $4.21 a mile, up 1.81% on the week and 14.66% on the year — and it climbed in the same stretch that dry van truckload softened 1.25% and flatbed slipped 1.18% on the July producer-price index. If you own the cold box, this is the month to keep it loaded rather than chase dry van.

**Fuel rose everywhere, so watch where you fill.** Diesel climbed nationally to $5.652 a gallon, up 3.63% on the week and 52.43% on the year, with the Gulf Coast jumping hardest at 4.66%. The spread is the lever you control: the Lower Atlantic is the cheapest region at $5.350 against California's $7.040 — $1.69 a gallon, or about $254 on a 150-gallon fill. Plan the tank around that gap, not the pump you happen to pass.

**Federal enforcement is ramping up.** Transport Topics reports the White House is targeting fraud in trucking with a coordinated enforcement surge — worth knowing where the scrutiny is landing if you run your own authority. [White House targets trucking fraud in enforcement surge](https://www.ttnews.com/articles/white-house-trucking-fraud)

**Drivers are pushing back on the EPA emissions fix.** Land Line reports OOIDA members are flagging real-world problems with the agency's emissions remedy; if you run affected equipment, the specific complaints are worth reading before they turn into your maintenance bill. [Truck drivers flag flaws in EPA emission fix](https://landline.media/truck-drivers-flag-flaws-in-epa-emission-fix/)

Every figure here comes from our own tracking — the reefer and diesel numbers update on the site, and you can check the regional fuel spread yourself before you route.

Elsewhere
Data behind this story
More on this
Fuel

Where this sector stands today, with the full series and its history.

Go to the fuel section →
Every fuel story →

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.