Truckload spot rates hit all-time record $3.83 per mile as freight market surges

US truckload spot rates cleared every prior benchmark in early June 2026, reaching $3.83 per mile—a figure that surpasses even the COVID freight boom's peak of roughly $3.50–$3.60 per mile, according to NavilinkGlobal. The SONAR National Truckload Index, tracked by FreightWaves, confirmed the reading of 383, and FreightWaves founder Craig Fuller noted that linehaul-only rates—stripping out fuel—show a surge that began as far back as November, meaning the strength is not a fuel-driven illusion.

Tender rejections climbed to 17.55%, meaning nearly one in five contracted loads is being refused by carriers who can earn more on the open spot market, per NavilinkGlobal. HedgeEye separately confirmed that US trucking rates have reached their highest point since 2022. The Logistics Managers Index placed its Transportation Prices reading at 96.0—the highest for any metric in the index's nearly ten-year history—against a Transportation Capacity reading of 31.7, signaling simultaneous price acceleration and supply contraction.

Fuel and seasonality drive the tightening

Diesel is a central culprit. The national average retail diesel price stood at $5.35 per gallon as of early June, up $1.90 year-over-year, with California at $7.05 per gallon and New England at $5.73 per gallon, according to NavilinkGlobal citing the US Energy Information Administration. FreightWaves reported that diesel reached $5.54 per gallon at its recent peak before cooling somewhat, and flagged an unusual dynamic: the spread between wholesale rack prices and retail diesel has blown out to a record $1.78 per gallon, handing larger carriers—who buy at wholesale but bill surcharges at retail rates—an estimated 11-cent-per-mile margin gain.

DAT Freight & Analytics documented the diesel surge's impact in March data well before the June record. The average van fuel surcharge jumped from 41 cents to 61 cents per mile month-over-month in March 2026—the highest since late 2022—representing a 50% increase from the 2025 baseline, according to DAT Chief of Analytics Ken Adamo.

Layered on top of fuel is an unusually early produce season. Uber Freight Vice President of Transportation Procurement Nathan Adams identified the dynamic: rising fuel costs combined with an early produce season pulled refrigerated equipment toward higher-paying perishables freight ahead of the traditional summer peak, compressing dry van and flatbed capacity simultaneously, as cited by NavilinkGlobal.

DAT's March data shows rates climbing across every mode

Data from DAT Freight & Analytics captured the upward move in motion. Truckload volume rose sharply across all equipment types in March, driven by early retail, produce, and construction demand. The DAT Truckload Volume Index for flatbed reached 314, up 18% from February, while van rose 12% to 253 and reefer climbed 7% to 196.

Contract rates followed the same trajectory. DAT reported the contract van rate at $2.72 per mile, contract reefer at $3.10, and contract flatbed at $3.43—each up between 20 and 30 cents month-over-month. Adamo advised shippers navigating RFP season to price contracts based on forward market expectations while maintaining flexibility to adjust if conditions shift.

Regional strain: California, Texas, and Arizona diverge from the national picture

C.H. Robinson's April 2026 freight market update identified California, Texas, and Arizona as experiencing tighter-than-average spot conditions for distinct structural reasons. In California, outbound demand exceeds available truck supply, and diesel running roughly 40% above the national average has driven higher tender rejections as contract fuel programs lag real-time inflation. In Texas, enforcement intensity and border-area compliance scrutiny are prompting carriers to selectively service or avoid certain lanes unless pricing adequately compensates for added risk and uncertainty.

Pressure spills into intermodal as Union Pacific acts

As truckload costs climbed, shippers accelerated a shift toward rail—but that relief valve is closing. Union Pacific on June 12 announced a $500 peak-season surcharge on shippers moving fewer than five loads per week using UP-owned EMP and UMAX domestic containers out of Southern California, effective June 21, according to WTO-MWW. UP simultaneously declared Chicago, Laredo, and all of California as constrained markets, imposing strict weekly capacity commitments on intermodal providers.

WTO-MWW noted this is the earliest UP has implemented a peak-season surcharge since 2021. UP also raised spot prices across more than 100 intermodal lanes effective June 17, with average increases of nearly 12% and increases approaching 25% on 40 Southern California lanes. UP's own intermodal fuel surcharge nearly doubled in six months, rising from 31% in January to 57.5% in June, per WTO-MWW.

The underlying demand driver is quantifiable. Domestic container moves grew 9% year-over-year across March and April combined, according to the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA) as cited by WTO-MWW. In Southern California specifically, UP's domestic intermodal volume surged more than 20% year-over-year per Rail State data, landing on an equipment pool that was not sized for the demand. UP had stacked idle containers during the freight downturn, and reactivation timelines have not kept pace with the volume recovery.

Tariff deadlines and drayage add further complexity

The Section 122 tariff surcharge on US imports—currently set at 15%—is scheduled to expire July 24, and uncertainty over whether it will lapse, be extended, or be replaced is producing predictable behavior: importers are frontloading shipments to either beat the expiration or lock in known costs, according to WTO-MWW. That activity pulls international cargo through West Coast ports and into transloading operations that draw on the same UP domestic container pools already under pressure.

Drayage—the short-haul trucking that moves freight between railheads and warehouses—has emerged as a separate constraint. During the freight downturn, drayage fleets shed capacity and drivers left for long-haul roles or exited trucking entirely. The FMCSA's enforcement crackdown on non-domiciled commercial driver's licenses removed additional drivers, with California among the hardest-hit states, per WTO-MWW. Shippers who secure rail capacity may still face two-to-three-day delays on the final drayage leg, eroding the transit-time advantage that made intermodal attractive in the first place.

Carrier earnings set to benefit; shippers face extended pressure

At Estes Express Lines, President and COO Webb Estes told FreightWaves that last week was a tonnage record for the company, with volumes up roughly 7.5% after running essentially flat two months earlier. He described the shift as reflecting a market that is genuinely hard to find capacity in—a striking change from conditions just one quarter ago—and noted that both retail and manufacturing are running strong simultaneously, contrary to expectations that higher prices would dampen consumer freight.

FreightWaves' Fuller flagged that Wall Street is likely to be caught off guard by the fuel surcharge windfall accruing to carriers with wholesale cost-plus fuel arrangements, estimating the spread between wholesale and retail diesel translates to roughly an 11-cent-per-mile margin improvement and approximately a 3% operating ratio gain this season. Uber Freight's projection, cited by NavilinkGlobal, is that spot rates will remain 20–25% above year-ago levels for the remainder of 2026, giving little comfort to shippers entering the second half of the year.