The Load Letter · Issue of June 28, 2026
The soft market just officially died
Record pricing index, an early peak, and a reefer baton that just passed at higher rates.
Week of June 22–June 27, 2026
The soft market is dead, and the data finally killed it. The Logistics Managers' Index printed Transportation Prices at 96.0 in May, the highest reading for any metric in the history of that index, and it's not demand driving it. It's capacity bleeding out. If you're still covering lanes off rate agreements you signed in a soft market, you're leaving money on every load you touch.
01Transportation Pricing Index Hits All-Time High
The May LMI clocked Transportation Prices at 96.0, the highest any metric in that index has ever recorded, and it confirmed what brokers felt all week. This is a capacity-constrained market, not a demand-driven one. Driver pools are shrinking, Texas just revoked over 6,400 non-domiciled CDLs, and ITS Logistics is warning that shippers who budgeted flat for 2026 are about to hit a wall on driver exits, fuel, and lean inventories all at once.
02Reefer Baton Passes Florida To Georgia
Central and South Florida filed their last produce report of the season, and Georgia opened in the same breath at higher rates. The seasonal handoff happens every year, but the rate step-up this time is the story, and World Cup host city reefer rates have now broken away from the national trend entirely as food and beverage freight pours into stadium markets.
03Flatbed Runs Hot On Manufacturing And Reshoring
Flatbed held at $2.94 all week as DAT reported peak season came early and Texas carriers are getting paid like it, with the post-SCOTUS tariff reshuffle pulling steel, building materials, and machinery forward. S&P Global says manufacturing is growing at its fastest rate since 2021, and reshoring announcements like Harley-Davidson moving engine production back to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin keep stacking up.
This week's numbers
Source: DAT and EIA · Week of June 23, 2026
This week's cold email line
The LMI just posted the highest transportation pricing reading in the index's history, and your flat-budgeted lanes are the ones most exposed when capacity tightens this summer.
Use this on mid-size shippers who set 2026 budgets flat, especially in manufacturing, food, and high-value verticals. It lands now because the record print gives you hard data cover for a conversation they've been putting off, and the early peak season means they're days away from feeling it.
Knowing what to say is half of it. Writing the whole sequence is the other half. If you want these turned into a real outreach campaign in your own voice, that is the thing I build.
This week's sources
- TFS, WEX roll out equipment financing program as trucking industry rebounds · FreightWaves
- Oil Prices Dip as Iran Talks Continue · Transport Topics
- Perspective: ATD Targets Trio of Issues for Fly-In · Transport Topics
- Built to bend: How AI-first supply chains adapt when disruption hits · Supply Chain Dive
- Aeva 4D LiDAR selected for Bendix Class 8 safety systems · FreightWaves
- Borderlands Mexico: Echo bets on Mexico growth with domestic transportation offering · FreightWaves
- Orderful's $35M Series C targets the service model that has defined EDI for decades · FreightWaves
- Oil Prices Continue to Fall on Hopes for Iran Deal · Transport Topics
- Is physical AI right for your DC? · DC Velocity
- Cargo thieves are following the AI boom · FreightWaves
- PM Intervals are your lifecycle extension · FreightWaves
- Truckload Rates Keep Rising as Tight Capacity Fuels Freight Market Recovery · Trucking Info
That is the read for this week.
Andrew
The Load Letter