The national reefer benchmark for the week of 17 August 2026 to 23 August 2026, snapshot recorded 17 August 2026: what the carrier is paid, what the shipper pays, what it works out to on a real lane, and what it leaves the truck once its own costs are covered.
| Measure | Week 34, 2026 | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Carrier rate per mile | $3.38 | What lands on the rate confirmation. |
| Shipper all-in per mile | $3.89 | Before any accessorial actually incurred on the load. |
| vs prior snapshot | not refreshed * | Benchmark not rebuilt between snapshots — see below. |
| Snapshot recorded | 17 August 2026 | Never edited afterwards — this page keeps showing the week 34 number. |
No movement is reported. Every equipment type in this snapshot is identical to the previous one to the cent, which means the benchmark was recorded again without being rebuilt rather than that eight independent national numbers all held perfectly still. The level below stands; the movement is simply not something we measured.
Against a working all-in operating cost of $1.90 per mile, this week’s reefer benchmark of $3.38 leaves +$1.48 per loaded mile. On a 700-mile run that is about $1,036 before deadhead, before detention, and before the reload is known.
Run the same load with 140 miles of deadhead attached and that margin compresses by roughly a sixth before the truck has done anything wrong. This is the whole reason a headline rate and a profitable week are different subjects, and why the equipment with the highest per-mile number is not automatically the one that pays best.
$1.90 is a working average, not your number. Calculate your actual cost per mile and hold the benchmark against that instead.
This week’s benchmark multiplied by real lane distance. A starting point for a conversation rather than a quote — direction, season and the receiving requirement all move the true number, and none of them are in a national average.
| Lane | Distance | Carrier gets | Shipper pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fresno, CA → Chicago, IL | 2,110 mi | $7,132 | $8,208 |
| McAllen, TX → Atlanta, GA | 1,200 mi | $4,056 | $4,668 |
| Grand Rapids, MI → Dallas, TX | 1,180 mi | $3,988 | $4,590 |
Distances are practical truck miles and will differ slightly from a car routing.
Against a working all-in operating cost of $1.90 per mile for a one-truck carrier, this week’s reefer benchmark of $3.38 leaves +$1.48 per loaded mile — about $1,036 on a 700-mile run, before deadhead and before any unpaid time at a dock.
That gap is not profit. It is what has to absorb the empty miles to the next pickup, a wait nobody paid for, a week with a bad reload, and the repair that has not happened yet. A rate that clears the floor by a few cents only works if nothing goes wrong. Work out your own cost per mile →
Week to week, mostly noise. Over a season, these are the things that actually decide where this benchmark sits.
| Produce season | May through July out of the growing regions is the single biggest swing factor in refrigerated freight. Capacity abandons general freight to chase it. |
| Continuous vs cycle-sentry | Continuous run burns noticeably more fuel and rules out some trailers. It belongs on the rate confirmation, not in a phone call. |
| Pre-cool and wash-out | A trailer that must be washed out and pre-cooled before loading is an hour or more of unpaid time unless somebody priced it in. |
The full reefer rate hub → carries the rest, plus the specification table, the regional breakdown and the accessorial impact.
The national benchmark was $3.38 per mile to the carrier for the week of 17 August 2026 to 23 August 2026, which works out to about $3.89 all-in for the shipper before accessorials.
It depends entirely on your own cost per mile. Against a working all-in operating cost of $1.90 for a one-truck carrier it leaves +$1.48 per loaded mile — before deadhead, which typically takes a further sixth off it.
A national benchmark blends lanes running in both directions, appointment and FCFS freight, and every region at once. Your lane is one direction, one receiving requirement and one market. Direction alone can move a real quote by a third.
No. Detention, layover, TONU and lumper fees all sit outside the per-mile number. On a short lane they can be worth more than the whole margin — see the detention policy.
No, and deliberately so. This is a dated report and it keeps showing the week 34 number. The evergreen Reefer rate hub always carries the current figure.