Truck rates tick up
U.S. truck freight rates and load activity climbed in early Q2, with contract and spot rates showing a modest uptick—load activity hit its highest level since 2022. This signals tightening capacity on key lanes and renewed pricing pressure for Chicago shippers and 3PLs. (businesswire.com) (freightwaves.com)
DAT and U.S. Bank’s new Rates Edition shows spot linehaul averaged $2.01 per mile in February versus $1.65 in November, while contract linehaul moved to $2.12 per mile in February from $2.02 in November. (ir.usbank.com) The report records the contract–spot gap compressing to about $0.11 per mile by March, roughly $0.28 per mile less than a year earlier, a change U.S. Bank and DAT attribute to spot catching up with contract pricing. (ir.usbank.com) High-frequency market trackers show load postings jumped sharply in late March: total spot load activity rose 4.1% week-over-week to the highest level since June 2022, load postings were about 35% higher than the comparable 2025 week, and the Market Demand Index reached its strongest level since February 2022. (spot.ftrintel.com) Fuel costs amplified carrier pressure as U.S. retail diesel climbed above $5 per gallon in March, with the St. Louis Fed/FRED series showing $5.401 per gallon for the week ending March 30, 2026. (fred.stlouisfed.org) CNBC reported U.S. diesel topped $5 per gallon in mid‑March amid escalating Middle East tensions that tightened global oil supply. (cnbc.com) SONAR-derived data cited by market commentary shows carriers rejecting 10.7% of loads out of Chicago while the national outbound tender rejection average spiked to about 11.5%, a dynamic that coincided with Chicago being flagged as the nation’s most severe freight bottleneck in the ATRI congestion rankings. (cello-square.com) (yahoo.com) Freight market indices recorded a shift in pricing leverage as the FreightWaves Supply Chain Pricing Power Index rose to 40 from 35, driven by multi‑year highs in tender rejections, and U.S. Bank notes the narrowing contract/spot spread leaves shippers with materially less cushion to absorb fuel and capacity volatility; U.S. Bank Freight Payment processes more than $46 billion in freight payments annually. (thetruckersreport.com) (ir.usbank.com)
