Contract dry van rates finished August 22 cents per mile above spot freight, according to U.S. Bank, marking a sharp shift from June, when spot pricing temporarily held an 8-cent advantage over contract.
The figures are detailed in the October edition of the U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index – Rates Edition, produced in partnership with DAT Freight & Analytics. The quarterly index tracks spot, contract and fuel costs on a per-mile basis and covers data from June through August.
Spot linehaul declined steadily over the summer. It fell to $2.17 per mile in August, compared with $2.35 in July and $2.38 in June.
Contract linehaul moved in the opposite direction. Rates increased from $2.30 per mile in June to $2.38 in July and $2.39 in August. According to the index, contract rates have increased every month since April.
That reversal is significant. In June, spot linehaul was still 8 cents higher than contract. By August, contract pricing had opened a 22-cent lead.
The report’s authors said the widening gap indicates that shippers continue to place value on committed capacity, while transactional freight is absorbing more of the market’s weakness.
The shift is also closely tied to trucking capacity. Capacity is continuing to leave the industry faster than freight demand is declining, helping support contract pricing even as spot markets weaken.
American Trucking Associations Chief Economist Bob Costello described the situation as a recovery driven largely by the removal of excess capacity. His comments were cited from an August column in Fleet Owner, which was referenced by the U.S. Bank report.
Despite the recent divergence, both markets remain substantially higher than a year ago.
August spot linehaul was 35.6% above August 2025, when the average stood at $1.60 per mile. Contract linehaul was 20.1% higher than the $1.99 recorded a year earlier.
The previous edition of the U.S. Bank index had shown spot rates up 31% year over year in May.
Fuel offsets part of the spot decline
The decline in spot linehaul has not translated into an equivalent reduction in total transportation costs, largely because fuel has become a larger component of the per-mile rate.
“Fuel costs are increasing while linehaul pricing is softening, making it important for transportation teams to closely analyze the components of their freight spend,” said Jeff Pape, head of transportation for U.S. Bank Corporate Payment Systems, in the report’s release.
Fuel surcharges climbed to $0.70 per mile in August, up from $0.62 in July, representing a 13% increase.
Once fuel is included, the picture changes. All-in spot rates declined 3.4% to $2.87 per mile, while contract rates increased to $3.09 per mile, compared with $3.00 in July.
“Stable rates do not necessarily mean stable transportation costs,” said Jennifer Bullock, freight audit and analytics manager at CommScope, in the report. She said shippers need to separate fuel from linehaul pricing to identify where actual pricing pressure is changing.
Fuel represented an increasingly large share of spot transportation costs during the summer.
“Fuel made up about 21% of the per-mile broker-to-shipper spot rate on dry van loads in June,” said Patrick Pretorius, general manager of DAT’s shipper segment. “By August, it was 24%, and diesel is trending higher into the fall.”
The trend could further affect trucking capacity heading into the fourth quarter. FreightWaves reported last month that rising diesel prices could push additional trucking capacity out of the market as carrier operating margins remain below previous-cycle peaks.
“Higher fuel costs push smaller, thinner-margin carriers out of the market, which adds to an already shrinking driver pool,” Pretorius said.
Load counts slip in August
Freight volumes tracked by the index also declined in August.
Spot loads fell 3.2% to 1,264,897, down from 1,306,819 in July. Contract loads declined 1.3% to 740,249, compared with 750,371 in July.
The August moves came after much sharper swings earlier in the summer.
Spot loads dropped 15.4% in May to 1,110,784, before rebounding 22.4% in June to 1,359,852.
Year over year, however, contract volumes have fallen more sharply. Contract loads were down 27.7% from 1,024,398 in August 2025. Spot loads declined 5.7% from 1,341,626 over the same period.
For shippers, the combination of softer transactional pricing, stronger contract rates, rising fuel costs and declining capacity points to a market that is becoming more complicated rather than simply cheaper.
“Shippers who’ve spent two years squeezing rate per mile would do well to shift focus to consolidation and network planning, as the market is tightening from two directions at once,” Pretorius said.
