Flatbed spot rates
Flatbed spot linehaul averaged $2.79 per mile this week, minus fuel, down 1.3%, or $0.04 per mile, from the prior week. Rates climbed 38.4%, or $0.77 per mile, year over year and held 30.2%, or $0.65 per mile, above the nine-year seasonal average of $2.14 per mile, near the top of the historical range.
All rates cited are linehaul only. They exclude fuel costs and surcharges unless otherwise noted.
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Bellwether states
The 10 flatbed bellwether states posted a moves-weighted outbound rate of $3.57 per mile this week, down 0.8%, or $0.03 per mile, week over week and up 39.5%, or $1.01 per mile, year over year. The roster carried 52.1% of all U.S. state-outbound flatbed loads, in the middle of its 51 to 53% baseline.
Regional rate trends
| Flatbed — Top 10 Origins by Rate Per Mile · Week Ending August 7, 2026 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Origin Region | Avg RPM | WoW % | YoY % |
| 1 | Southeast | $3.40 | -2.1% | +54.7% |
| 2 | Ohio River | $3.32 | +1.2% | +47.8% |
| 3 | Carolinas | $3.05 | -4.7% | +47.4% |
| 4 | South Central | $2.89 | -3.1% | +44.1% |
| 5 | Great Lakes | $2.83 | -0.9% | +38.7% |
| 6 | Lower Midwest | $2.74 | -1.5% | +38.4% |
| 7 | California | $2.62 | -0.3% | +56.5% |
| 8 | Upper Atlantic | $2.52 | -1.2% | +31.4% |
| 9 | Florida-So Georgia | $2.48 | -3.1% | +48.8% |
| 10 | Lower Mountain | $1.94 | -4.5% | +35.8% |
The top 10 origins carried 87.4% of all U.S. outbound loads moved in the week. Ohio River led week over week at +1.2%, while most leading origins eased from the prior week as summer volumes softened.
Market conditions
Load posts were down 6.1% week over week and up 35.1% year over year, while truck posts were up 1.7% week over week and down 25.8% year over year. With freight easing faster than capacity, the load-to-truck ratio eased to 36.97, down from 40.07 a week earlier but still well above 20.31 a year ago.
Short-term outlook
The 35-day DAT Rate Forecast puts flatbed spot linehaul at $2.70 per mile in mid-September, within an uncertainty band of about plus or minus $0.07 per mile, or 2.5% of the forecast point. Across equipment, the flatbed band ranks in the middle. That end-of-forecast rate stands about $0.67 per mile above the actual rate near the same date a year earlier, $2.03 per mile.
Freight demand outlook
The second-quarter U.S. Bank Freight Payment Index captured a market moving in two directions at once. The National Shipments Index fell 1.1% from the first quarter to 75.1, its second straight quarterly decline and 2.8% below a year earlier. Yet the National Spending Index climbed 6.4% sequentially and 28.1% year over year to 230.4. DAT data told the same story on the rate side: average spot rates jumped 18.9% in the quarter to $3.02 per mile, linehaul only, extending the 11.9% gain from the first quarter and finishing 41.1% above year-ago levels. Contract rates rose to $3.06 per mile, up 20.9% year over year. Shippers paid steeply more to move slightly less freight, and that gap is the whole story.
This is a supply-led tightening, not a demand recovery, and the report says so plainly. After more than three years of freight recession, small, mid-sized, and large fleets kept exiting under weak rates and rising costs, narrowing the gap between capacity and soft volumes. Federal safety and compliance actions also gained momentum over the past year, including English language provisions, non-domiciled CDL revocations, and tighter oversight of driver training schools. Two second-quarter developments added pressure: coordinated DHS and DOT scrutiny of cabotage that led to significant B-1 visa cancellations, and the May 14 Supreme Court ruling in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, which clarified that brokers can face scrutiny over carrier selection. The Southwest shows the effect most clearly, with shipments down 20.2% year over year while spending rose 39.9%, the kind of divergence you get when trucks leave the market, not when freight floods in.
Weekly reports
