Produce Reefer Spot Rates Hit $3.83 a Mile, 40% Above a Year Ago
USDA produce reefer rates averaged $3.83 per mile in the week ending Nov. 3, up 40% from last year, while volume fell 3%. Lane-by-lane changes inside.
Spot rates for refrigerated produce loads averaged $3.83 per mile in the week ending Nov. 3, according to USDA figures compiled by DAT Freight & Analytics. On the 48 lanes USDA published in both years, that average is 40% higher than a year earlier, even as national produce volume fell 3% from the week before and 7% from last year.
For reefer carriers, the gap means shippers are paying far more per load than in fall 2025 while there are fewer loads to haul. USDA rated truck availability at 3, or adequate, on its 1-to-5 scale, and 16 of the 76 lanes it tracks showed a slight shortage.
The produce freight market in numbers
- $3.83 per mile: average USDA produce spot rate, up $1.08 per mile from a year earlier. These are open-market rates per load paid by shippers or receivers, including broker fees.
- $2.71 per mile: average reefer spot linehaul rate paid to carriers, excluding fuel, for the week ending Oct. 31, per DAT RateView. That is up 31.2%, or $0.65 per mile, from a year earlier and up 1.2% from the prior week.
- 51%: how far average Washington lane rates sit above last year. California is 39% higher and Texas 16% higher.
- 25%: the weekly drop in volume out of South and Central California, where tomatoes fell 85% and cantaloupes 48%.
- 33%: the weekly jump in volume through the Imperial and Coachella Valleys, Arizona and the western Mexico crossings, led by romaine, bell peppers and watermelons.
- 9%: the weekly fall in volume through the Mexico crossings into Texas, with limes, cucumbers and avocados down.
Lanes that gained and lost
Week over week, Santa Maria to Miami posted the largest increase at 10%. Imperial and Coachella loads to Baltimore and Philadelphia rose 9%, and Oxnard to Baltimore climbed 8%, as did South and Central California vegetables to Chicago. That Chicago lane now sits 74% above last year while its origin’s volume dropped 25%.
Some lanes moved the other way. South and Central California vegetables to New York fell 9%, citrus to Seattle fell 9% and to Miami 8%, and South Texas to Miami lost 7%. Texas lane rates slipped 2% on average, with New York and Philadelphia down 4% each.
Out of Washington’s Yakima and Wenatchee shipping districts, rates to Los Angeles rose 7% and to Philadelphia 6%, while Seattle fell 7%. Chicago and Dallas show the widest gaps to last year from Washington, at 70% and 64% above.
What it means for carriers and brokers
Rising rates on falling volume points to a tighter reefer market, DAT said, though the moves are uneven from lane to lane. The desert districts are picking up: Imperial, Coachella and Palo Verde volume jumped 159% in a week but is still 54% below last year, which DAT read as a late start to the winter vegetable season. At the same time, California volume is down 14% from a year earlier and Texas freight softened.
In California, growers reported some farmworkers staying home during immigration enforcement. DAT noted that the USDA data does not show enforcement as the cause of the volume decline.
Brokers face mixed margins. Lanes that rose cost more to cover, while lanes that fell, such as South Texas to Miami, leave room between carrier pay and the customer rate. USDA lane rates are what shippers pay per load and are not the same as carrier earnings.
How the rates are measured
The figures cover produce-only refrigerated freight shipped near 34 degrees, with rates quoted for Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Weekly changes compare against Oct. 27, and yearly changes compare against the USDA report for Nov. 4, 2025, matched by origin district and destination city. Rates exclude extra charges for terminal-market delivery and multi-stop loads unless noted.
Source: DAT Freight & Analytics
