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Rates

Dry van spot rates rise to $2.26 a mile as truck posts stay a third below last year

DAT says linehaul rates rose 6 cents in the week ending Nov. 6, while October contract rates hit their highest level of the year and the gap to spot kept narrowing.

By Yuki ·
Rest area truck parking lot with a row of tractor-trailers under an overcast autumn sky
Photo: DanTD, Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dry van spot linehaul rates paid to carriers averaged $2.26 a mile, excluding fuel, in the week ending Nov. 6, according to DAT's weekly dry van report published Nov. 9.

That was up 6 cents, or 2.8%, from the week before. Rates were 58 cents, or 34.9%, higher than a year earlier and 43 cents above the nine-year seasonal average of $1.83 a mile, near the top of DAT's historical range.

Where rates moved

The 10 dry van bellwether states, which carried 35.8% of national outbound dry van volume, averaged $2.91 a mile, up less than a cent on the week and up 76 cents, or 35.3%, from a year ago.

Among the top origin regions, California led the gains, up 15 cents to $2.77 a mile. Great Lakes followed at $2.52 and Ohio River at $2.49. Lower Atlantic gave back the most, down 4 cents to $2.11. Florida and South Georgia was lowest among the top 10 at $1.38.

Load-to-truck ratio

Load posts fell 2.0% and truck posts fell 1.7%, easing the dry van load-to-truck ratio to 10.90 from 10.93. Load posts remain 26.5% above a year ago, while truck posts are 33.9% below. A year ago the ratio was 5.70.

Contract versus spot

Using month-end October figures, DAT put the dry van contract rate at $2.45 a mile excluding fuel, up 3 cents and the highest of the year. Spot gained 5 cents to $2.22. The gap between them shrank to 23 cents, from 25 cents in September and 34 cents in October 2025.

Year over year, spot is up 32.9% and contract is up 21.9%. DAT noted that in June spot paid more than contract for the first time since February 2022, before sliding through September and turning up again.

Outlook

DAT's forecast has dry van spot linehaul rising to $2.32 a mile 35 days out, with a range of $2.25 to $2.39. The company said holiday restocking ahead of Thanksgiving typically pulls dry van freight out of distribution centers through late November.

In the same week, DAT reported reefer spot linehaul up 3.3% to $2.77 a mile and flatbed up 1.0% to $2.63.

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