Van spot rates hit $3.05 a mile, the highest since early 2022, DAT says, but linehaul has slipped since July

Dry van spot rates averaged $3.05 a mile in October, their highest monthly level since February 2022, DAT Freight & Analytics reported Nov. 10. That number includes fuel, and DAT's breakdown shows fuel surcharges, not linehaul, have carried the increase since summer.

Reefer spot rates averaged $3.60 a mile and flatbed $3.61 in October, DAT said, with all three equipment types about 45% above a year earlier. From September to October, DAT had van up 4 cents, reefer down 2 cents and flatbed unchanged.

Contract rates climbed too. DAT put the October van contract rate at $3.28 a mile, tying the record set in May 2022, while reefer at $3.62 and flatbed at $4.05 set new records in the same Nov. 10 report.

More freight did not drive this. DAT's Truckload Volume Index for October was 2% below a year earlier for van, 9% lower for reefer and 7% lower for flatbed. Trucks are the scarce part: equipment posts on DAT One were running 22% to 26% below last year, depending on trailer type, DAT principal industry analyst Dean Croke said in the Nov. 10 release.

What it means for carriers

The headline rate makes the gain look bigger than it is. DAT estimated October fuel surcharges at 83 cents a mile for van, 91 cents for reefer and $1.00 for flatbed, roughly double a year earlier. From July through October, van linehaul fell 17 cents a mile while the fuel portion rose 21 cents, DAT said.

Van linehaul, the rate with fuel taken out, averaged $2.22 a mile in October, up 55 cents from a year earlier but under its 2026 high of $2.39 in July, according to DAT. October reefer linehaul of $2.69 and flatbed linehaul of $2.61 also trail this year's highs of $2.75 in July and $2.94 in June, DAT said. In DAT's example, a van tractor running 500 miles a day at 6 miles per gallon burned about $521 a day in fuel in October, against $310 in February.

The leverage is still real. Croke said carriers head into the holiday freight season "in a position to be selective and negotiate better rates." Carriers quoting all-in should know the linehaul they are accepting, because the fuel share of an all-in rate shrinks when diesel falls.

What shippers and brokers should watch

Brokers are paying more to move less. Croke said brokers moved fewer loads in October than a year earlier and paid carriers roughly a dollar a mile more to haul them.

Early November data point the same way. In Truckstop's figures for the week ended Nov. 6, truck postings fell 8.5%, the largest weekly drop in nearly six months, while load postings rose 7%, Truck News reported Nov. 11. Tender rejections, the share of contracted loads carriers turn down, were 12.9% in TRAFFIX's Nov. 9 update, against 6.2% a year earlier, Heavy Duty Trucking reported Nov. 10.

What to watch:

- DAT's weekly numbers through Thanksgiving week, to see whether holiday freight lifts linehaul and not just fuel.
- EIA's weekly diesel average, which sets the fuel share of every all-in rate.
- 2027 contract bids, which now start from record contract rates in DAT's data.