By June 2026 the freight market had clearly turned in carriers' favor on price, but not on volume or cost. Rates rose because capacity left the market, diesel was still well above a year earlier, and freight fraud kept setting records. That combination makes steady cash flow and careful broker vetting more important, not less.
Rates: spot nearly caught contract
DAT's May 2026 report, released June 16, put the national average spot van rate at $2.89 a mile, up 22 cents from April and 90 cents from May 2025. Reefer spot averaged $3.35 and flatbed $3.65. Contract van rates averaged $2.92, up 7 cents from April and 54 cents from a year earlier, which left spot van only 3 cents below contract. In reefer, spot ($3.35) moved above contract ($3.28).
Unlike April, linehaul did some of the work this time. Van linehaul, excluding fuel, rose 20 cents to $2.16 a mile and reefer rose 22 cents to $2.56. Fuel surcharges stayed high at 73 cents a mile for van and 87 cents for flatbed.
Volume did not follow. DAT's Truckload Volume Index fell 9% for van, 10% for reefer and 14% for flatbed from April. DAT's Dean Croke described it as capacity coming down to meet demand, with spot carriers being paid for it. In plain terms, there were fewer trucks chasing roughly the same freight.
For small carriers in the spot market, a narrow spot-contract gap is good news: spot loads pay close to what contracted freight pays. It also means brokers are working on thinner margins, which matters for credit risk (see below).
Diesel eased but stayed high
EIA's weekly U.S. average retail diesel price fell to $5.350 a gallon for the week of June 1, 2026 and $5.210 for the week of June 8, down from $5.640 in early May. That was still about $1.74 above the $3.471 average a year earlier. Because fuel surcharges usually follow the weekly index with a lag, falling diesel can briefly help margins, and rising diesel can hurt them.
Fraud hit a record
Fraud is a cash-flow problem as much as a security problem, because a load stolen through a fake carrier or a hijacked identity produces an invoice no one will pay.
Highway's Q1 2026 Freight Fraud Index recorded 527,940 fraudulent email attempts and identified 71,801 spoofed phone numbers in the quarter. Its headline finding was that half of all freight fraud in Q1 2026 was committed by carriers with clean records, which means a clean safety and authority history alone is not enough to vet a counterparty.
Common schemes include double brokering, where a load is illegally re-brokered to another carrier who may never be paid, identity theft of legitimate carriers and brokers, and spoofed emails and calls that redirect payments. Factors are on the front line because they verify the load, the broker and the paperwork before funding. When you compare factors, ask how they verify loads and brokers and what happens to you if an invoice turns out to be tied to fraud.
Broker and carrier failures: recourse matters
Thin broker margins and continued carrier exits keep payment risk high. Under recourse factoring, you buy back an invoice the broker never pays. Under non-recourse factoring, the factor absorbs the loss if the broker becomes insolvent, usually for a higher fee. Most non-recourse agreements cover only customer insolvency, not disputes, short pays or fraud, so read the definition in your contract. Our guide to recourse vs non-recourse factoring explains the common exclusions.
Free broker credit checks are one of the most useful features factors offer. Because the factor is advancing against the broker's promise to pay, it has every reason to know which brokers pay slowly or not at all. Run a check before you accept a load from an unfamiliar broker.
On rates, factoring fees vary widely with monthly volume, broker credit quality and whether the agreement is recourse or non-recourse. Compare the total cost per invoice, including any wire, same-day, fuel advance or credit-check fees, rather than the headline percentage. Our factoring hidden fees guide and calculator help with that comparison.
Regulation: enforcement of existing rules
Most of the regulatory pressure in mid-2026 came from stricter enforcement rather than new rules:
- English language proficiency. ELP violations were put back into out-of-service criteria in June 2025. By May 2026, USDOT said more than 20,000 drivers had been placed out of service for failing it. An out-of-service order idles the truck and stops the invoices.
- Non-domiciled CDLs. A February 2026 final rule restricted who can obtain a non-domiciled CDL. FMCSA said more than 28,000 improperly issued licenses had been revoked nationwide and that it had withheld $160 million from California over unrevoked licenses.
- ELD revocations. FMCSA removed several devices from its registered ELD list during 2026, including revocations dated February, March and May. Check that your device is still listed on FMCSA's ELD registry.
Fewer qualified drivers supports rates but makes it harder for small fleets to fill seats, and every compliance gap is a risk to cash flow.
Larger carriers: LTL and the FedEx Freight spin-off
FedEx completed the spin-off of FedEx Freight on June 1, 2026, and the less-than-truckload carrier began trading on the New York Stock Exchange as FDXF.
Old Dominion Freight Line reported on June 3 that May revenue per day rose 12.3% from May 2025, while LTL tons per day fell 3.8% and shipments per day fell 5.3%. Its CEO said demand had continued to improve as the quarter progressed. The pattern matched the truckload market: better pricing, still-soft volumes.
What to watch in July and August
- The tariff deadline. The temporary Section 122 tariff that took effect in February was set to expire at 12:01 a.m. Eastern on July 24, 2026 unless Congress acted. Cross-border and drayage volumes could shift either way.
- Continued enforcement. Roadside ELP checks and CDL reviews will keep pulling some drivers out of service.
- More exits. Carrier and broker failures are likely to continue, which keeps credit checks and recourse terms in focus.
- Volatile spot rates. With spot near contract, invoice values can swing week to week. A factoring agreement without high monthly minimums handles that better. See how to read a factoring contract.