Dry van spot freight rates rose above contract pricing in June 2026 for the first time since February 2022, before cooling through the back half of July as freight demand eased. The freight market opened August with spot rates and tender rejection rates showing little week-over-week movement, suggesting the summer freight surge that lifted rates earlier in the season had largely leveled off.

Diesel price swings tracked closely with rate movements during the same window. Diesel fell for ten consecutive weeks to $4.58 a gallon by July 6, then reversed sharply, climbing to $5.31 a gallon by July 27 as tension in the Strait of Hormuz and a total Russian diesel export ban pushed global fuel markets higher. The rebound in fuel costs arrived just as spot rates were cooling, squeezing margins for carriers operating in the spot market.

Tender rejection rates, which measure how often carriers turn down freight at the contracted rate, are watched closely as an early signal of tightening or loosening capacity. Rates holding steady into August suggest carriers are neither aggressively rejecting loads to chase higher spot pricing nor accepting rate cuts to fill capacity, indicating a freight market in a holding pattern after a volatile summer.

Source: Summar Financial - https://summar.com/freight-market-update-august-2026/