Roundup

Reefer rates climb as dry van cools, and the diesel map runs $1.58 wide

Fuel rose again, but the week's real signal for carriers is where the openings are — refrigerated freight paying up, dry van easing, and a diesel spread worth routing around.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Diesel went up again this week, but for a carrier deciding what to haul and where to fill, the more useful signal is spread — between trailer types and between regions. Refrigerated freight is paying more while dry van cools, and the fuel map is a dollar-and-a-half wide.

**Reefer is the trailer to run right now.** Our national refrigerated produce rate hit $4.21 a mile, up 1.8% on the week and 14.7% on the year (USDA). Over the same stretch the dry van truckload producer price index eased to 195.6, down 1.3% in July — the two moving in opposite directions. If you have the reefer and the lanes, this is the month to use it. [Reefer rate trend.](https://news.open-trucker.com/trends/reefer-national-rpm/)

**Diesel rose, and the map matters more than the average.** EIA's Aug. 17 survey put the national average at $5.454 a gallon, up 3.7% on the week and 46.9% on the year — no softening that. But the spread is where the money is: California sits at $6.785 against the Lower Atlantic's $5.204, a $1.58 gap, or roughly $237 on a 150-gallon fill. Buy east and south, plan the California legs. [Every region on our fuel page.](https://news.open-trucker.com/trends/diesel-us/)

**Broker transparency moved a step.** OOIDA's Land Line reports the long-stalled push to force brokers to open their load paperwork to carriers took a real procedural step this week — the clearest movement drivers have seen on the issue in years. [Land Line.](https://landline.media/wheels-are-turning-on-broker-transparency-proposal/)

**Why capacity, not demand, is running this cycle.** FreightWaves makes the case that the current market is supply-driven: trucks have been leaving faster than freight has fallen, which is why load rejections keep climbing while tender volumes stay flat. It is the backdrop to that firmer reefer number. [FreightWaves.](https://www.freightwaves.com/news/supply-driven-trucking-market-cycle-explained-in-the-data)

Two of these you can act on before Friday: pick the trailer that is paying, and the pump that is not.

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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

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.