Dry van moved up a penny to $2.37 per mile, reefer held at $2.72, and flatbed climbed three cents to $3.05 in the latest DAT data — with capacity already pulling out of the market ahead of CVSA’s International Roadcheck May 12-14. The week of May 6, 2026 lands on the seam between a stable post-storm rate floor and the annual three-day inspection blitz that historically removes 8-12 percent of effective truck capacity from spot.
This Week’s All-In Rates
- Dry Van: $2.37 per mile, up 1 cent week over week, per DAT’s Trendlines for the week ending May 2.
- Reefer: $2.72 per mile, up 1 cent, with the largest pull-forward expected in produce lanes hauling out of California, Florida, and the Texas Rio Grande Valley.
- Flatbed: $3.05 per mile, up 3 cents, the strongest week-over-week move of the three modes as residential and commercial construction restocks for the spring build season.
- Linehaul Dry Van: $2.00 per mile excluding fuel, up 1 cent.
- Diesel: EIA’s national on-highway average held in the $5.30s for the week, keeping fuel a meaningful ceiling on linehaul margin.
The Roadcheck Setup Is Already Tightening Spot
CVSA’s International Roadcheck runs May 12-14, and a meaningful slice of capacity always self-removes during the blitz — owner-operators take down time, fleets push pre-trip discipline, and brokers move pickups out of the inspection window. DAT analysts have flagged this year’s blitz as historically tighter than 2025 because the dates collide with Mother’s Day weekend, which compresses produce and floral haulage into a narrower window.
For independent dispatchers, the practical read is that load-to-truck ratios will climb through this week and peak May 12-14, then unwind quickly into the back half of May. Carriers willing to run through Roadcheck — with clean ELD records, tight cargo securement, and current pre-trip documentation — will see the largest rate premium of the second quarter. Carriers that step out of the market for the three days will give it back when capacity returns.
Next week’s CVSA International Roadcheck, scheduled for May 12-14, 2026, is set to create a significant ripple effect across the trucking industry as spot rates begin to recover and available capacity continues to tighten.
DAT Freight & Analytics
Reading the Mode Mix This Week
Flatbed’s three-cent week-over-week climb is the cleanest signal in the data. FleetOwner’s read of the FTR and DAT data attributes the move to multifamily construction restock, utility-scale solar deliveries pushing into the second-quarter peak, and steel mill output funneling into the truckload network as rail capacity tightens. Independent dispatchers running flatbed should be holding rates firm — the spot floor moved with the latest DAT print and there is no indication of a pullback in load posts.
Dry van’s penny move is less interesting in the absolute, but the directional consistency — four straight weeks of small upward moves — is the cleanest sign of a soft market floor establishing under van rates after eighteen months of erosion. Heavy Duty Trucking’s DAT recap notes that load-to-truck ratios have stabilized in the high single digits across most major lanes, which is the level historically associated with rate hold rather than rate growth.
Reefer is the segment with the most upside through the next ten days. Mother’s Day weekend collides with Roadcheck May 12-14, produce volumes from Yuma and the southern San Joaquin are ramping into peak, and reefer drivers historically take downtime at twice the rate of dry van during the inspection blitz. Independent dispatchers booking reefer should be calling brokers Tuesday and Wednesday this week to lock May 12-14 capacity at a premium — the rate-confirmation gap between Friday May 8 and Tuesday May 12 will be the widest of the second quarter.
What to Watch Through May 14
Watch three numbers through the back half of this week. First, the DAT load-to-truck ratio for the lanes you actually book — if your dry van ratio crosses 9 and your reefer ratio crosses 8, you have pricing power on every load that touches the May 12-14 inspection window. Second, EIA’s on-highway diesel print Monday afternoon — a fuel pop above $5.40 puts pressure on linehaul rates that are still recovering from eighteen months of compression. Third, the Mexican border van market — produce surges into Laredo always show up in the spot ratio two days before the rest of the country sees the move. Independent dispatchers who track those three signals together will book stronger rates through Roadcheck than competitors running off feel.
