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Fuel & rates

October LMI: transportation capacity contracts for an 11th straight month at 38, prices read 88, and new truckload contracts are resetting about 13% higher

The Logistics Managers' Index rose to 70.7 in October, its second-highest reading in over four years, as inventories surged at the fastest pace in four years, inventory costs hit their highest since March 2022, and aggregate logistics costs grew at their fastest rate since March 2022. Knight-Swift is taking the survey into bid season targeting at least double-digit contract increases.

Fuel & ratesUpdated Tuesday, November 3, 2026
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Weather and roads

A U.S. 160 bridge over the Piedra River has failed, Pagosa Springs is largely cut off, and CDOT says a workable replacement is a week or two away

The San Juan River is receding after rising to nearly 17 feet, the highest since 1911 — but the Colorado Department of Transportation is calling the damaged U.S. 160 bridge over the Piedra River a "bridge failure," U.S. 160 is closed on either side of Pagosa Springs, and the town's one reopening, the First Street Bridge, does not restore the through route.

Fuel & rates

DAT says spot linehaul rates climbed again in the week ending Oct. 31 — van $2.23, reefer $2.71, flatbed $2.61 — while Truckstop's all-in rates fell for all three types

DAT's linehaul-only board tightened in every equipment type as load posts rose and truck posts fell, with flatbed's load-to-truck ratio jumping to 41.73. Truckstop/FTR's all-in broker-posted rates for the week ending Oct. 30 fell for van, reefer and flatbed for the first time since mid-August — a fuel-component difference, not a disagreement about how tight the market is.

Fuel & rates

Oil fell more than 6% Monday on U.S.–Iran diplomacy hopes and pump diesel eased to about $6.28–$6.29 a gallon — but Goldman still puts a $140 scenario on 2027

Brent crude was $106 a barrel and WTI $97.31 on Monday morning after a selloff that began in early overseas trading, AAA put diesel at $6.292 and GasBuddy at $6.281 — and the week's relief sits on top of distillate inventories about 10% below the five-year average, with no agreement yet on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

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Carrier watch

Pamt posts its truckload unit's 12th straight operating loss — a 109.1% operating ratio — as diesel timing and driver costs outrun an 11% sequential rate gain

Consolidated revenue rose 8.2% to $162.5 million and rate per mile improved 11% from the second quarter, but the net loss widened to $8.1 million. President Lance Stewart blames higher net fuel costs — surcharges lag weekly diesel moves by a week or more — and the rising cost of attracting and retaining qualified drivers.

Regulations

Oral-fluid drug testing is still not an option for DOT tests — HHS says no laboratory is certified yet, and marijuana rescheduling is down to written arguments due Nov. 5

The FDA eased a premarket-review requirement for testing systems on Oct. 6, but that change covers equipment, not laboratories — and HHS confirmed on Oct. 29 that none has been certified, three years after DOT authorized the method. DOT has also clarified that a state medical-marijuana card still cannot excuse a positive federal test.

Fuel & rates

Oil fell more than 6% Monday on U.S.–Iran diplomacy hopes and pump diesel eased to about $6.28–$6.29 a gallon — but Goldman still puts a $140 scenario on 2027

Brent crude was $106 a barrel and WTI $97.31 on Monday morning after a selloff that began in early overseas trading, AAA put diesel at $6.292 and GasBuddy at $6.281 — and the week's relief sits on top of distillate inventories about 10% below the five-year average, with no agreement yet on reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Newsletter

The Morning Mile — Tuesday, Nov. 3

A U.S. 160 bridge failure cuts off Pagosa Springs, DAT and Truckstop tell two different rate stories about the same tight market, oil's 6% drop eases diesel only slightly, oral-fluid drug testing remains unavailable, Pamt posts a 12th straight truckload loss, and FTR sees utilization near 100%.

Fuel & rates

FTR's Eric Starks: truck utilization may be near 100% and contract rates could climb toward 20% in 2027 — but fuel cash flow decides which carriers keep the gains

Speaking Oct. 28 in Dallas, the FTR chairman credited data-center construction and improving manufacturing for demand, pointed to non-domiciled CDL and training-provider constraints for the capacity squeeze, and warned that smaller carriers paying for diesel today while waiting to collect are the recovery's exposed edge.

Infrastructure

Truck parking is named in a $1 billion federal safety package — but only four grants mention it, none promises a new space, and they total about $21.6 million

The U.S. Department of Transportation says 10 of the 297 Safe Streets and Roads for All projects it announced Thursday will help address the truck parking shortage. The Trucker's review of the full awards list found only four projects that specifically reference truck parking — in Pecos and Reeves County, Texas, Fort Collins, Colorado, and Miami Township, Ohio — and every one of them is corridor work, a study, or a plan.

Enforcement

DHS says Operation Guardian arrested more than 230 people across 15 states in 72 hours — including more than 40 CDL holders taken off the road

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced the results Monday in Tulsa, Oklahoma: a three-day ICE and state-patrol operation, Oct. 26–28, targeting people the department says were in the country illegally with unauthorized CDLs and other public safety threats in trucking. Oklahoma officials say more than 1,000 commercial vehicles were inspected, and the multi-state design was built specifically so drivers could not route around one state's checkpoints.

Law and safety

Three dead, including a 5-year-old, after a car leaves its lane and hits a parked semi on I-95 in Martin County, Florida

A 2017 Toyota Camry traveling in the outside northbound lane shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday went onto the right paved shoulder for reasons the Florida Highway Patrol has not determined and struck the rear left corner of a parked 2012 Kenworth's trailer. Three passengers died; the driver and an 11-year-old girl were hospitalized, and the truck driver was not hurt.

Weather and roads

U.S. 160 is closed from Wolf Creek Pass through South Fork and in Pagosa Springs as the San Juan River heads for a forecast 22-foot crest — above the 1911 record

The Colorado Department of Transportation has closed U.S. 160 in two stretches, plus CO 17 to the New Mexico line and CO 151, while La Plata County has closed all of its county roads. The San Juan River at Pagosa Springs was forecast to crest Sunday evening at 22 feet, past the 17.8-foot record set in 1911, and evacuations now run along four rivers and into three more counties.

Weather and roads

Flash flooding closes Arizona highways and forces evacuations — I-17 is back open, four state routes are still shut, and Pagosa Springs braces for a record San Juan River crest

ADOT closed I-17 in both directions in northern Arizona on Sunday before reopening it in the afternoon; State Routes 89A, 260, 73 and 238 remain closed with no reopening time. Evacuations were ordered in Sedona, Camp Verde and Gila County, and in Colorado the San Juan River at Pagosa Springs is forecast to crest above its 1911 record on U.S. 160.

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