USDA's $4.14 reefer rate is produce only, and lanes run $2 to $14 a mile

The national refrigerated produce truck rate averaged **$4.14 a mile** in the week to August 18, according to USDA data. It is the only lane-level dollar rate published free anywhere in the United States, and it is worth knowing exactly what it counts before you quote it.

Start with what it covers: refrigerated **produce only** — fruit and vegetables moving out of the growing districts. It is not a rate for reefer freight in general. No frozen protein, no dairy, no backhauls of anything else. USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service collects it each week from produce shipping points, which is why the lanes on the list are places like the Delmarva peninsula, Yakima Valley and the Salinas-Watsonville belt.

The $4.14 is an unweighted mean across whichever lanes were active that week, so the mix shifts with the growing season. USDA's own caveat is blunt: treat week-to-week moves in the lane table as more meaningful than in this average. The figure slipped about 1.0% on the week but is up 9.1% on the year, and it was built from 73 lanes.

The range is the real story. The highest-paying lane was Delaware, Maryland and Eastern Shore Virginia to Baltimore at **$14.00 a mile** — but that is 100 miles, about $1,400 for the load. Short hauls read high per mile because the fixed cost of loading spreads over few miles. The same district paid $11.43 a mile to Philadelphia (140 miles) and $8.70 to New York (230 miles). At the other end, Mexico crossings through South Texas to Los Angeles paid just **$2.06 a mile** — but that is 1,600 miles and roughly $3,300 for the load.

So what do you do with it? The per-mile number rewards distance backwards: a $14 short haul pays less in total dollars than a $2 cross-country run. Read the lane table, not the headline average, and compare rate-per-mile only against lanes of similar length. If you run produce out of a district USDA quotes, that weekly table is a free negotiating benchmark you can check in one click.

Both the average and the lanes are produce reefer only, and an unweighted seasonal mix. It is a real dollar figure rather than an index — but it is not the whole reefer market.