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The Daily // Fri 08.21.26 View in browser →
The DailyFriday · August 21, 2026
The five minutes that makes you the most informed person in freight today
Lead Story
Walmart fast delivery helps fuel 24% growth in e-commerce salesWalmart credited continued momentum in e-commerce and fast delivery with helping to drive 5.9% revenue growth during the second quarter, highlighting speed as a feature that attracts more online sales. U.S. comparable sales growth slowed from 4.6% a year ago to 2.6%, and sales guidance for the year came in lower than the second half of the previous fiscal year. At Walmart U.S., e-commerce sales grew 24%, the retailer’s 10th consecutive quarter of e-commerce growth over 20% for the domestic unit. Deliveries fulfilled from local stores increased 43% alongside more than 50% growth in marketplace net sales. Expedited delivery — under three hours — represented 37% of store-fulfilled orders, and 70% of online orders were delivered the same day. E-commerce sales now represent over 23% of Walmart U.S.’s revenue mix, double the level from five years ago. CEO John Furner said fast delivery in the U.S. grew 48% for the quarter and that the company has now expanded sub-30-minute delivery into 38 markets, calling speed "not simply a fulfillment metric" but "an acquisition strategy" that deepens customer engagement and Walmart+ membership. The retailer posted overall revenue of $187.9 billion, beating Wall Street estimates, with adjusted earnings per share of 81 cents versus 68 cents a year earlier. A $2.9 billion U.S. government tariff refund boosted the profit margin by nearly one point. Despite the beat, Walmart shares fell more than 9% in late-day trading as investors weighed softer comparable sales and guidance. Why It Matters?
Walmart’s fast-delivery-fueled e-commerce growth, arriving the same week Home Depot rolled out nationwide express delivery, shows the largest retailers are increasingly treating their store networks as last-mile fulfillment infrastructure, a shift that keeps pulling parcel volume away from network carriers and toward retailer-owned and gig delivery capacity. Top Stories
China growth straining global auto shipping capacity: Liner CEOWallenius Wilhelmsen Chief Executive Lasse Kristoffersen said surging Chinese vehicle exports are sustaining a shortage of specialized car-carrier capacity, even as new pure car and truck carriers enter service. Speaking during the company’s second-quarter earnings presentation, Kristoffersen said the market-leading carrier’s fleet departing Asia was fully booked, with demand exceeding available space. Chinese vehicle exports exceeded 1 million units in both June and July, an annualized pace of more than 12 million vehicles, compared with fewer than 1 million before the pandemic. The PCTC orderbook stands at roughly 20% to 21% of the existing global fleet, but shipyard capacity is largely committed through 2029, meaning vessels ordered now generally wouldn’t be delivered until 2030 or later. China-linked spot and charter rates rose about 80% during the second quarter and had likely doubled from first-quarter lows by the time of the earnings call. Wallenius Wilhelmsen reported adjusted EBITDA of $361 million for the quarter, down 7% on higher bunker-fuel costs, and maintained its roughly $1.6 billion full-year 2026 guidance. Why It Matters?
Wallenius Wilhelmsen’s view is that the car-carrier market will remain constrained not only by vessel availability, but by a fundamental shift in global auto trade. Sponsored · Aurora
Diesel still ripping higher than the rest of the barrel; here’s whySince the Iran war began in late February, international crude benchmark Brent is up 26.4%, but ultra low sulfur diesel (ULSD) is up 71.5%, a gap wide enough that former Goldman Sachs commodities chief Jeffrey Currie called it historic. The crack spread between second-month ULSD and first-month Brent crossed $90/barrel for the first time this week, likely a first in history, driving average U.S. retail diesel to $5.5477/gallon Thursday, within 15 cents of the post-war high. The causes stack up: Ukrainian drone strikes have nearly halved Russian diesel exports and pushed Russian refining runs to a 25-year low; U.S. refiners are running at 97.2% utilization to chase the diesel crack; the U.S. lost about 250,000 barrels a day of refining capacity last year; several Middle East refineries remain damaged by Iranian strikes; and U.S. distillate inventories are well below normal for this time of year, with no strategic reserve to cushion product markets the way the SPR cushions crude. Why It Matters?
Diesel, not crude, is the fuel that sets fleets’ cost structure, and a spread this wide means carriers are absorbing a much sharper fuel-cost shock than headline oil prices suggest, with little relief in sight until Russian refining capacity or Middle East refinery damage is repaired. Driver shortages, booming exports reshape US-Mexico freight marketMexican exports rose 34.4% year over year in June, the fifth consecutive month of double-digit growth, pushing first-half export growth to 24.6%, according to a C.H. Robinson report. Manufacturing exports increased 35.3% in June, led by electrical and electronic equipment and food and beverage shipments, and the U.S. absorbed roughly 84% of Mexico’s non-oil exports in the first half of the year. Capacity is being constrained by a shrinking pool of drivers qualified for cross-border routes, as stricter enforcement of B-1 visas and English-language requirements reduces the number of Mexican drivers able to run into the U.S., while increased scrutiny of shipping documentation is slowing operations. Automotive freight is moderating — light-vehicle production was flat in the first half — while computing equipment has now surpassed automotive products as Mexico’s largest export category to the U.S., and congestion at the Port of Manzanillo is creating long truck queues. Why It Matters?
Strong export growth and rising technology shipments are keeping U.S.-Mexico freight demand elevated, but tightening driver availability, stricter border enforcement and infrastructure bottlenecks continue to limit capacity and support higher transportation rates. Zim profit rises on Q2 revenue of $1.78 billionZim Integrated Shipping Services reported second-quarter net income of $64 million, up from $24 million a year earlier, as higher freight rates and increased volume lifted revenue 9% to $1.78 billion. The Haifa-based container carrier moved 922,000 container units in the quarter, a 3% increase year over year, with average freight revenue up 8% to $1,590 per unit. Adjusted EBITDA rose 4% to $491 million, and the company generated $386 million in free cash flow during the quarter. Zim reaffirmed full-year 2026 guidance of $2 billion to $2.4 billion in adjusted EBITDA. Its proposed merger with Hapag-Lloyd remains subject to closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and has been opposed by several Israeli government agencies over security concerns. Why It Matters?
Zim’s improving results, even as its pending Hapag-Lloyd merger faces regulatory and political headwinds in Israel, show container carriers are still finding pockets of pricing power on trans-Pacific lanes even as full-year volumes and revenue trail last year’s stronger first half. FreightWaves Today · Live at 12PM ET
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Your next truck could drive itself.Aurora Driver 2 is hauling freight on public roads. From the Research Desk
In partnership with CargoWise Landside
What It Takes to Win in the Next Era of DrayageFreightWaves and CargoWise Landside surveyed drayage operators on the automation investments separating growth from margin compression amid demand volatility and driver shortages. In partnership with Werner
High-Stakes Freight Brokerage: Risk and AccountabilityFreightWaves and Werner surveyed shippers moving high-value freight and found compliance failures and limited visibility are turning low-cost brokerage into a reliability risk, not just a pricing one. In partnership with Trimble
White Paper: AI Agent Readiness and Adoption in FreightAI is moving beyond experimentation and into everyday freight operations. FreightWaves and Trimble surveyed carriers, brokers, shippers and owner-operators on where the industry is adopting AI today and what leaders expect next. Courtesy of Infios
New Research: Tariffs Didn’t Raise Costs. They Raised the Execution Standard.Infios-backed research breaks down how tariff volatility turned transport-mode selection and trade-route monitoring into daily operating decisions instead of annual ones. Watch on FreightWaves TV
What We’re Watching
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Retailers race to turn stores into fulfillment centersWalmart’s 24% e-commerce growth follows Home Depot’s nationwide express delivery rollout this week. Watch whether more big-box retailers lean harder on store-fulfillment to compete with Amazon’s 30-minute delivery push. ▸
Diesel’s blowout spread tests fleet budgetsThe gap between diesel and crude prices just hit a likely all-time high as Russian refining runs sink to a 25-year low. Watch whether U.S. refiners’ near-97% utilization rate can hold without a breakdown. ▸
Mexico’s export boom collides with a driver crunchMexican exports grew 34.4% in June even as stricter B-1 visa and English-language enforcement shrinks the pool of qualified cross-border drivers. Watch whether capacity keeps tightening on the busiest northbound lanes. That’s your Daily for today. See you tomorrow.
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