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The Daily
The five minutes that makes you the most informed person in freight today.
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Quantix: One call covers dry bulk, liquid bulk, packaging, warehousing and managed transportation. Quantix removes the obstacles between your material and your customer. One partner, nationwide. Learn more → |
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Lead Story · Costs
By Stuart Chirls
Freight got more expensive in the third quarter, and the earnings calls show the bill didn’t land evenly. Stuart Chirls went through comments from seven executives at Ford, Union Pacific, XPO and Valero and found the damage depends on how far goods travel, which networks a company owns and whether its rivals pay more to move freight.
Ford took it on the chin. CEO Jim Farley put the combined year-over-year pressure from commodities, memory and logistics at about $2 billion. “Higher fuel prices are impacting our freight and energy costs,” CFO Sherry Ann House said, though truck and fleet demand hasn’t cracked “at this point.” Auto parts can cross borders several times before final assembly, so fuel exposure stacks up at each stage.
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$2B
added cost at Ford from commodities, memory and logistics
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+29%
XPO fuel, operating expense and supplies, year over year
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$30–$35
per barrel to ship crude from the Gulf Coast to Asia, vs. about $5
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Railroads see an opening. “Railroads are much more efficient,” Union Pacific CEO Jim Vena told investors Oct. 22, calling higher fuel “naturally an advantage.” Executives at UP, Norfolk Southern and CSX all said fuel and a tightening truck market are steering freight toward intermodal, although fuel still added 140 basis points to UP’s operating ratio. XPO went another way. Its fuel, operating expense and supplies line jumped $66 million, but CEO Mario Harik has cut outsourced miles to 5.6% from about 25%, and he said rising truckload rates make insourcing pay off sooner.
Valero is the flip side. Moving Gulf Coast crude to Asia now costs $30 to $35 a barrel, up from about $5 a year ago, and that has widened discounts on heavy grades that Gulf refiners can buy close to home. “Higher freight rates actually give us an advantage into the typical export markets into Latin America,” COO Gary Simmons said. Shippers heading into 2027 bid season should read these calls closely: companies that own their networks or sit closer to supply are turning freight costs into pricing power.
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Why it matters
Executives no longer treat freight as just a margin risk. It now decides where companies buy, how they ship and which markets they can serve competitively.
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| Top Stories |
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The Maritime Electrification Breakthrough Goal, co-convened by Turkey and Australia and released at a climate conference in Ankara, targets about 2 exajoules of electricity for international shipping by 2035. Shore power to docked ships and electricity used aboard vessels count toward it; port trucks, trains and terminal equipment don’t. Long Beach, Los Angeles, Seattle and Miami are cited as North American shore-power examples.
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Why it matters
The framework casts ports as the coordinators between utilities, terminals and shipowners on grid capacity and cost-sharing, ahead of the IMO Net-Zero Framework debate Nov. 23 in London.
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Read more → |
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Sponsored · Quantix
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October spot rates to the West Coast sat 343% above their Feb. 28 level and 14% below the pandemic-era record. Long-term contract fuel surcharges on four major Asia trades jumped 42% to $820 per FEU. Xeneta still forecasts global spot rates could fall 30% in 2027 from third-quarter levels as the fleet grows 6.8% and more ships return to the Red Sea.
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Why it matters
Cheaper won’t mean predictable. On-time arrivals fell to 27% in the third quarter, and Xeneta sees reliability topping out near 40% next year.
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Read more → |
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The retail average behind most fuel surcharges posted its second straight weekly drop, its lowest since Oct. 12 and well off the $6.529 record set Sept. 22. Brent slid from $104.77 at the start of November to about $91.55 Tuesday as traders bet a Democratic Congress will rein in U.S. military action in the Middle East. “People were positioning for an imminent strike,” Energy Aspects’ Amrita Sen told Bloomberg.
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Why it matters
Not everyone buys the relief. Bank of America’s energy team says record supply disruptions and shrinking inventories leave the market “with substantially less protection against the next one.”
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Read more → |
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Loaded imports at the ports NRF tracks rose 12.6% year over year in September as retailers kept reshuffling shipments around tariff changes. The group projects 2.26 million TEUs for October and about 2 million a month for November and December, putting 2026 near 26 million TEUs, up 2%. Early 2027 softens, with March forecast down 11.2%.
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Why it matters
Most holiday goods have landed, but rail-transfer delays at some West Coast ports and an ILWU Local 26 contract extended only through Nov. 20 remain pressure points.
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Read more → |
| FreightWaves Today · Live at 12PM ET |
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Brought to you by Samsara. Built with operators, for operators. Blind spots cause some of fleets’ costliest, most complex collisions. Learn how AI-powered 360-degree visibility helps you spot risks in real time and protect drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Download the Guide.
| Time |
Guest |
Role |
| 12:00 |
Jeff Dangelo |
CEO, Fura and Fura Freight |
| 12:15 |
Michael Precia |
President and Chief Revenue Officer, Fleetworthy |
| 12:45 |
Bill Stephens |
Editor, Trains Magazine |
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| Sponsored Insight |
Quantix |
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| From the Research Desk |
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In partnership with CargoWise Landside
A FreightWaves survey of drayage operators on the challenges limiting growth, where they’re investing in automation and why digital tools are becoming essential to scale without adding cost.
Download the report → |
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In partnership with Werner
Shippers of high-value and mission-critical freight on compliance failures, visibility gaps and carrier performance, and why accountability now tops their list.
Download the report → |
| From Our Partners |
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Courtesy of Infios
Infios research on how the 2025 tariff environment made transport mode a tariff decision and turned tariff exposure from a fixed cost into a managed variable.
Read the research → |
| Watch on FreightWaves TV |
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What’s behind the slide in oil prices and what it means for diesel.
▶ Watch now |
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Air cargo rates are running 30% above a year ago. A look at what AI has to do with it.
▶ Watch now |
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How ShipStation Global is putting AI to work across its freight operations.
▶ Watch now |
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| What We’re Watching |
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ILWU Local 26 deadline
The LA-Long Beach watchmen’s contract extension runs through Nov. 20. A deal or a fourth extension decides how quietly the extended peak winds down.
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Diesel surcharges
Surcharges reset off the DOE benchmark every week. Track whether two straight declines turn into a trend or Middle East risk pushes prices back up.
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IMO net-zero debate
The IMO takes up its Net-Zero Framework Nov. 23 in London, with the new 35% electrification goal now on the table.
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That’s your Daily. See you tomorrow.
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