Flatbed spot linehaul rates paid to carriers averaged $2.66 per mile this week, minus fuel, down 0.1%, or less than a cent per mile, from the prior week. Rates climbed 31.2%, or $0.63 per mile, year over year and held 26.1%, or $0.55 per mile, above the nine-year seasonal average of $2.11 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 $3.30 per mile this week, down 0.7%, or $0.02 per mile, week over week and up 30.5%, or $0.77 per mile, year over year. The roster carried 51.6% of all U.S. state-outbound flatbed loads, within its 51 to 53% baseline.
Regional rate trends
| Flatbed — Top 10 Origins by Rate Per Mile · Week Ending September 4, 2026 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Origin Region | Avg RPM | WoW % | YoY % |
| 1 | Ohio River | $3.28 | +2.0% | +44.2% |
| 2 | Southeast | $3.25 | -0.7% | +42.4% |
| 3 | Carolinas | $3.01 | -0.9% | +39.7% |
| 4 | Great Lakes | $2.93 | +2.7% | +40.1% |
| 5 | Lower Midwest | $2.69 | +4.2% | +31.9% |
| 6 | South Central | $2.62 | -1.0% | +31.7% |
| 7 | Upper Atlantic | $2.60 | +3.0% | +36.1% |
| 8 | California | $2.42 | -0.4% | +38.5% |
| 9 | Florida-So Georgia | $2.36 | -0.0% | +34.4% |
| 10 | Lower Mountain | $1.84 | -0.1% | +25.3% |
The top 10 origins carried 87.4% of all U.S. outbound loads moved in the week. Lower Midwest held up best week over week, up 4.2%, while several southern origins — Southeast, Carolinas, South Central and Florida-So Georgia — slipped on the week.
Market conditions
Flatbed freight pulled back as capacity rebuilt. Load posts fell 7.3% week over week, though they stand 46.2% above last year, and truck posts added 4.1% on the week while remaining 11.0% below a year ago. The load-to-truck ratio loosened to 36.44 from 40.92 a week earlier, still far above the 22.18 of a year ago.
New farm equipment is core open-deck freight — tractors and combines move from the ag-manufacturing belt to dealers on flatbeds, step-decks and RGNs — and the latest numbers point to a thinner load base ahead. U.S. sales of agricultural tractors fell 10.9% in July versus a year earlier, combine sales fell 5.3%, and July tractor sales ran 29% below the five-year average, pointing to a structural pullback rather than seasonal cooling. The decline is steepest in the high-horsepower segment behind the heaviest open-deck moves, with 4WD tractor sales down 38.7% year over year and 27.0% year to date. Association of Equipment Manufacturers vice president Curt Blades pointed to persistent economic uncertainty pushing farmers to defer equipment purchases, a dynamic that argues for a softer-than-seasonal flatbed and step-deck outlook into the back half of the year.
Short-term outlook
The 35-day DAT Rate Forecast puts flatbed spot linehaul at $2.63 per mile in mid-October, within an uncertainty band of about plus or minus $0.07 per mile (2.6% of the forecast point). Across equipment, the flatbed band ranks in the middle. That end-of-forecast rate stands about $0.57 per mile above the actual rate near the same date a year earlier ($2.06 per mile).
