July's freight was borrowed. The bill lands today.

The tariff deadline hits today. Plus a diesel spike, ArcBest trims capacity, and $62M for new parking.

Author

Reed Loustalot
July 24, 2026

TRUCK PARKING CLUB

Friday Bulletin • July 24, 2026

Good Morning Truck Parking Club Members,

Who Pays When You Park?

Owner-operator, lease, or company driver, somebody covers your parking every night out here. We want to know who: whether it comes out of your own pocket, whether your carrier ever chips in, and whether covering it would make you stick around. Ten quick questions.

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The Big Thing

The Tariff Clock Runs Out Today. Your Freight Runs Out Next.

For weeks we told you to watch July 24. It is here.

Section 122, the flat 10% tariff sitting on nearly everything the country imports, hits its hard legal expiration at 12:01 a.m. today. The President cannot extend it alone, and Congress has not moved to. What replaces it is already taking shape. USTR closed its two Section 301 investigations on July 20, and the proposal on the table is roughly 12.5% duties on 46 countries, with China, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Japan and South Korea among them, and no built-in expiration this time. Brazil got a head start, hit with a separate 25% Section 301 duty on July 22.

Here is why it lands on your dashboard. The reason July felt busy is that importers spent the month front-loading fall and holiday freight to beat exactly this deadline. Ports are on track to move about 2.47 million containers in July, the heaviest single month on record. That freight was borrowed from September and October, and forecasters expect imports to slide from August into the fall once the pull-forward stops.

For the next couple of weeks the freight is still there, and the leverage is still yours. Spot rates cooled about 10% off the July 4 peak but are still running better than 55% above last year, and one of the largest brokers still has July truckload spot up around a third from a year ago. Book what is in front of you, hold your number, and do not build your August around the phone you had in July.

The deadline is the whole reason your July was loud. As of this morning, the calendar turns the volume back down.

Mile Markers

Where the numbers landed this week.

Diesel: $5.134/gal, up 33.8 cents on the week. That is the second straight weekly jump, and it puts the national average well over a dollar above where it sat a year ago. (EIA)

Spot rates (all-in, national average): Van $2.99, Reefer $3.41, Flatbed $3.62 per mile. All three eased a few cents as more trucks came back onto the market, but every one is still running sharply above a year ago. (DAT)

Stay Off The Ramp

You shouldn't have to choose between a highway ramp and a HOS violation. Thousands of drivers make that call every night. We built Truck Parking Club so you don't have to.

Use code ramp25 for $25 off any daily booking at any of our 6,070+ locations. Find a real spot tonight.

Quick Hits

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News

ArcBest Is Pulling Capacity Out of the LTL Network. ArcBest said July 16 it will close 10 ABF Freight service centers in smaller markets and cut about 2% of its workforce, roughly 280 jobs, folding those terminals into nearby ones pending Teamsters approval. Effective August 1 it is also retiring the MoLo and Panther brand names to run everything under the ArcBest banner, and it is shutting down its Vaux Freight Movement System. ABF Freight, the union LTL carrier, keeps its name. It is a thin slice of the network, but it is one more sign that even the big carriers are trimming trucks, not adding them. Read more on Trucking Dive

Washington Just Put $62 Million Into New Truck Parking. The U.S. DOT awarded about $62 million through its BUILD program to add spaces and real-time availability tech across five states. Kentucky landed the biggest share at $25 million for seven rest areas on I-75, I-71, I-65 and I-64, followed by Mississippi at $22 million and Illinois at $13 million, with Louisiana and Wyoming rounding it out. It is a drop against a shortage the ATA still pegs at one space for every 11 trucks, but every new legal spot is one less night circling for somewhere to shut down. Read more on Land Line

The Rate Bump Is About Missing Trucks, Not More Freight. Fresh numbers this week show why your pricing power is real. ATA's For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index barely moved in June, up 0.1% after falling more than 3% in May, yet spot rates keep climbing. ATA's chief economist says the shrinking truck count is what has fleets feeling steadier than the freight volume alone would suggest. The recovery is being driven by capacity leaving the road, not by freight coming back. For anyone running their own authority, that means one thing: hold your rate. Read more on Heavy Duty Trucking

Come See Us at the Texas Trucking Show

Texas Trucking Show

We are setting up at the Texas Trucking Show in Houston this weekend! July 25 and 26 at NRG Center, Halls C and D, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days, and admission is free for anyone in the industry. Roll by Booth #915, say hey, and talk truck parking with the team.

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⭐ Review of the Week

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