DAT One load posts totaled 2.9 million for the week of Sept. 20-26, down 1% from the prior week. Equipment posts fell 4% to 176,451, with truck posts down for all three equipment types. All-in rates rose across the board, but fuel accounted for the entire increase for dry van and more than the entire increase for refrigerated and flatbed, whose linehaul rates fell.

The EIA’s national average on-highway diesel price used in this report’s fuel surcharge calculation was $6.285 a gallon (week ending Sept. 14), up 31.8 cents (5%) from $5.967 the week before. Diesel has kept climbing since. The EIA reported $6.529 a gallon for the week ending Sept. 21, up another 24.4 cents and the highest weekly reading in its records going back to 2007. The fuel surcharge will reflect that price in next week’s report.

About the timing of fuel surcharge calculations: The EIA prices diesel each Tuesday, and this report uses the reading from the Tuesday before the report week opens. That ties the surcharge to the price that was already published and in effect while the freight moved. By design, all-in rates trail the fuel market by about a week.

7-day average broker-to-carrier spot rates (linehaul + fuel surcharge):

▲ Van: $3.01 per mile, up 5 cents

▲ Reefer: $3.63 per mile, up 4 cents

▲ Flatbed: $3.60 per mile, up 5 cents

Dry van: Load posts edged higher as capacity slipped.

▲ Loads: 1,351,876, up 2%

▼ Trucks: 118,576, down 3%

— Linehaul rate: $2.17 per mile, unchanged

▲ Load-to-truck ratio: 11.4, up from 10.9 the prior week

Reefer: Loads and trucks both pulled back 8%.

▼ Loads: 635,215, down 8%

▼ Trucks: 34,790, down 8%

▼ Linehaul rate: $2.71 per mile, down 2 cents

— Load-to-truck ratio: 18.3, essentially flat against 18.2 the prior week

Flatbed: Capacity thinned faster than freight.

▼ Loads: 955,298, down 1%

▼ Trucks: 23,085, down 6%

▼ Linehaul rate: $2.59 per mile, down 1 cent

▲ Load-to-truck ratio: 41.4, up from 39.3 the prior week

Market analysis from Dean Croke, industry analyst at DAT Freight & Analytics

Fuel drove the entire all-in increase. The national average price of diesel rose 31.8 cents a gallon, which added about 5 cents a mile to the average dry van fuel surcharge, 6 cents to reefer, and 6 cents to flatbed. The average van linehaul rate held at $2.17 compared to the previous week, while reefer and flatbed eased. Each all-in price gain came from fuel.

Posted capacity remains thin. Truck posts on DAT One fell for all three equipment types and are running 26% below a year ago for van, 20% for reefer, and 21% for flatbed.

Van was the only segment to add freight. Van load posts rose 2% on the week and are running 30% above a year ago, while truck posts fell 3%. That lifted the van ratio to 11.4 from 10.9 as post-holiday volume kept climbing.

Flatbed remained the tightest market. Load posts slipped 1% from the previous week, while truck posts dropped 6%. That pushed the flatbed ratio to 41.4 from 39.3, the highest of the three equipment types. The Ohio River region led flatbed origins at $3.22 a mile, just ahead of the Southeast at $3.21.

Rates are running 28% to 36% above last year. Van linehaul is up 32% year over year, reefer 36%, and flatbed 28%. Against the nine-year seasonal average for this week, van runs 19% higher, reefer 27%, and flatbed 23%. The 35-day DAT iQ RateCast forecast puts van linehaul at $2.14 a mile by late October, reefer at $2.69, and flatbed at $2.56. Those forecasts are 46, 63, and 53 cents above actual rates a year earlier.