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American factories are booming again

American factories are booming again

Factory output and hiring both jumped in July, and that is truckload volume with legs.

Reed Loustalot
August 07, 2026

TRUCK PARKING CLUB

Friday Bulletin • August 7, 2026

Good Morning Truck Parking Club Members,

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The Big Thing

American Factories Just Had Their Best Month in Four Years. Watch What It Does to Your Freight.

For two years the story out here has been the same. Rates were climbing because trucks were leaving the road, not because anybody was shipping more. This week the factory floor started to rewrite that story.

The Institute for Supply Management's Manufacturing PMI hit 55.6% in July, its highest reading since May 2022 and the seventh straight month of growth. Anything above 50 means the sector is expanding, and 55.6 is not a squeaker. The production index jumped to 58.5, and 15 of the 18 manufacturing industries ISM tracks reported growth.

The number that matters most for your week is buried in the report. The employment index climbed to 52.8, the first time factory hiring has grown in almost three years. Plants do not add people unless they believe the orders are real. New orders rose again too, to 56.7. That is demand showing up, not just capacity leaving.

Here is why it lands on your dashboard. Manufacturing freight fills flatbeds and dry vans on the steady industrial lanes, the ones that do not live and die on a holiday weekend or an import wave. When plants run hotter, they pull in more raw material and push out more finished goods, and that is truckload volume with real legs under it. For the first time in this recovery, the pricing leverage you have been using has a demand story behind it, not only a shrinking truck count.

One caution. ISM's prices index is still running above 70, which means the inputs those factories buy keep getting more expensive. That is the same cost pressure you feel at the pump, and it is the risk to how long this runs. Watch the next PMI print in early September. If manufacturing holds above 50, the fall freight season has a floor under it that the last two years never had.

The load board finally has a reason to stay strong that has nothing to do with trucks disappearing. Price your lanes like the factories are back, because the data says they are.

Read more: ISM Report | TD Economics | Quartz

Mile Markers

Where the numbers landed this week.

Diesel: $5.348/gal, up about 3 cents on the week. That is the fourth straight weekly climb, and it now sits about $1.55 above where it was a year ago. (EIA)

Spot rates (all-in, national average): Van about $2.97, Reefer about $3.33, Flatbed about $3.53 per mile. All three eased again as summer freight cooled and produce season wound down, with van and reefer off roughly 2 to 3% and flatbed off about 1.5% on the week. Every one is still running well above a year ago. (DAT)

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News

Ohio's 1,400-Space Parking Build Is Rolling Out. Ohio is putting $150 million into 1,400 new long-term truck parking spaces across 33 sites in 17 counties, the largest single-state parking commitment in the country. The state is fast-tracking 11 of those sites to add about 500 spaces by the end of this year, each with lighting and restrooms, and the rest follow through 2027. If you run I-70, I-75, or I-71 across Ohio, real overnight room is on the way. Read more on Trucking Dive

FMCSA Keeps Pulling ELDs Off Its Approved List. Federal regulators have removed dozens of electronic logging devices from the registered list since the start of last year, including another round this summer, after finding they no longer meet the rules. If a device you run gets revoked, you get a short window to move to a compliant ELD or fall back to paper logs before it counts against you. Check your unit against the current registered list so a pulled device does not turn into a violation at the scale. Read more on FMCSA

Pilot Adds 112 Parking Spaces With Two New Travel Centers. Pilot opened two new travel centers this year, one in Chicopee, Massachusetts off I-90 and one in Ponce de Leon, Florida off I-10, adding 112 dedicated truck parking spaces between them along with diesel lanes and showers. Massachusetts and the Florida Panhandle both run tight for overnight room, so that is real capacity on two lanes that needed it. Read more on Truckers News

The Regulars