Dry van truckload spot rates reached $2.14 per mile in May 2026, a gain of 31.29 percent against the same month a year earlier and 9.74 percent above April. Contract rates moved to $2.18 per mile over the same period, up 9.00 percent year over year.

The divergence between those two growth rates is the more consequential number. Spot pricing rose more than three times as fast as contract pricing, which compressed the gap between the two to roughly $0.11 per mile by March 2026. That represents about $0.28 per mile of compression from the prior spread, with spot rates closing most of the distance to contract levels.

Historically that convergence precedes contract rate increases, because shippers lose the arbitrage that makes routing freight to the spot market attractive. Carriers gain leverage in bid season when spot pricing approaches or exceeds contract on a sustained basis.

Ocean freight moved in the opposite direction during the same window. The Freightos Baltic Index recorded Asia to US West Coast pricing down 21 percent to $1,916 per forty foot equivalent unit. Asia to US East Coast rates fell 10 percent to $3,457 per FEU, giving up gains accumulated earlier in 2026.

The combination points to a domestic market tightening on capacity while transpacific ocean capacity remains ample. Rate data is drawn from the US Bank Freight Payment Index and DAT reporting.

Source: FreightWaves - https://www.freightwaves.com/news/us-bank-freight-payment-index-rates