A load-to-truck ratio of 41.8 is not a statistic — it is permission to stop apologizing for your rate. Flatbed capacity has been leaving the market for weeks, and the trucks that stayed home during Brake Safety Week made a tight segment tighter. Meanwhile diesel finally backed off. Those two facts point in opposite directions on your rate sheet, and the dispatcher who handles them separately makes more money than the one who lumps them together. Here is how to read this week’s numbers and what to change on Monday.
- Reprice open-deck loads now; raise your open-deck floor 8 to 12 cents per mile and quote in daily windows.
- Quote linehaul and fuel separately on every confirmation, reference EIA weekly averages, and use auditable regional numbers to protect margin.
- Set written equipment-specific linehaul floors, shorten quote validity to one business day, and push trucks toward tight origins not backhauls.
The Numbers You Are Pricing Against
For the week of August 23–29, 2026 — the most recent complete week — DAT One and DAT iQ reported national broker-to-carrier averages of $2.89 a mile all-in for dry van, $3.45 for reefer, and $3.51 for flatbed. Strip the fuel surcharge out and the linehaul picture is different: van $2.19 (down 2 cents), reefer $2.69 (up 6 cents), flatbed $2.67 (down 3 cents).
The load-to-truck ratios are the story. Van sat at 12.0, up from 9.6. Reefer ran 23.6, up from 20.6. Flatbed jumped to 41.8 from 35.1. Total equipment posts were 166,269 — the lowest Week 35 figure in DAT’s records and 31% below last year. Trucks are not coming back into this market as fast as loads are.
On fuel, the EIA’s national on-highway diesel average was $5.599 a gallon for the week of August 31, 2026, down 5.3 cents from $5.652. Regional spread is wide: Gulf Coast $5.360, Midwest $5.571, West Coast $6.497, California $7.218.
Reprice Open Deck Before Anyone Asks You To
Flatbed linehaul went down 3 cents while flatbed load-to-truck went up nearly seven points. That combination does not last. When ratios climb and rates lag, rates catch up — usually within two to three weeks. If you have open-deck capacity, this is the wrong week to lock anything long at last month’s number.
Practically: raise your open-deck floor by 8 to 12 cents a mile on anything outbound from a tight origin, and quote in daily windows rather than weekly ones. Tell the broker the quote is good until end of business. In a market moving this way, that is not a negotiating trick — it is accurate.
Fuel, not freight, moved the rate carriers were paid. All three all-in rates rose, but only the reefer linehaul rate went up week over week.
Dean Croke, DAT Freight & Analytics
Stop Quoting All-In When Diesel Is Moving
Last week is the cleanest illustration you will get of why all-in quoting hurts you. Every all-in rate rose. Two of three linehaul rates fell. A dispatcher watching only the all-in number would have concluded the market strengthened for van and flatbed. It did not — diesel did.
Quote linehaul and fuel as separate lines on every rate confirmation. When diesel falls, as it did to $5.599 this week, your all-in drops automatically and you have not touched your margin. When it spikes, you are not renegotiating from scratch. The EIA publishes the standard method most surcharge tables are built on — use the published national or regional number, not a broker’s internal table, and say so in writing.
Where the Reefer Money Is This Week
Reefer was the only equipment type whose linehaul rate gained ground — up 6 cents to $2.69, with the ratio at 23.6. The regional detail matters more than the national average. Reefer rates out of Fresno to destinations east of the Mississippi rose an average of 19 cents a mile, roughly three times the national increase, as produce moved with fewer trucks available to move it. DAT’s equipment-specific reports break this down by lane each week.
- Set a written floor per equipment type today. Van $2.19, reefer $2.69, flatbed $2.67 linehaul are national averages — your floor should be that number adjusted for your carrier’s actual cost per mile, not a round number you picked.
- Quote linehaul and fuel separately on every confirmation. Reference the EIA weekly national average by date so the number is auditable.
- Push open-deck capacity toward tight origins. A 41.8 ratio means the truck is the scarce item. Reposition toward it rather than waiting for a backhaul to appear.
- Shorten your quote validity to one business day. In a market where ratios move seven points in a week, a week-long quote is a gift to the broker.
- Check your regional fuel exposure before accepting a West Coast lane. California diesel at $7.218 versus Gulf Coast at $5.360 is a $1.86 spread that a national surcharge table will not cover.
What to Watch Next Week
Two things. First, whether equipment posts recover now that Brake Safety Week is over — if they stay near 166,000, this is real capacity exit rather than a one-week pause, and every floor you set should move up. Second, the next EIA diesel release on September 9, which will tell you whether the 5.3-cent decline was the start of a trend or noise. Rebuild your surcharge table the same day either number lands, and send your carriers a one-line note explaining what changed. That note is the difference between a dispatcher who quotes rates and one who explains them.
