The Sonar National Truckload Index climbed to $3.42 per mile in mid-September 2026, sitting 47 percent above year-ago levels even after a slight two-cent weekly dip, according to FreightWaves data. The pricing surge comes as diesel costs simultaneously jumped to $6.26 per gallon, a 33-cent increase in a single week and roughly 68 percent higher than the $3.72 per gallon recorded a year earlier.

Freight volumes are also showing signs of a turnaround. The Cass Freight Index posted a 2.1 percent year-over-year increase in August shipments, marking the first positive reading after 42 consecutive months of declines. Post-Labor Day volume data from the Sonar Truckload Volume Index showed freight running 14 percent above the same week last year, adding further evidence that demand has picked up heading into the fall shipping season.

Capacity remains constrained alongside the demand increase. Carrier tender rejections, a measure of how often carriers turn down freight they are contracted to haul, held at 14 percent in mid-September, compared with just 5.5 percent a year earlier. That gap points to fleets operating closer to their limits, with fewer trucks available to absorb sudden freight surges.

Taken together, the pricing, volume, and rejection data suggest the truckload market has moved into a tighter phase, with rates responding to both rising diesel costs and a rebound in shipment demand after a prolonged freight downturn.

Source: FreightWaves -- https://www.freightwaves.com/news/trucking-market-volumes-up-diesel-soaring-is-peak-here