DAT One spot truckload loads rose 9% in the week ended October 3
Walmart and Apple have received $2.9 billion and $2.2 billion, respectively, in tariff refunds from the US government, the Wall Street Journal reported, while smaller businesses that pay tariffs through FedEx, DHL Express and United Parcel Service have waited longer to put those funds back into payroll, inventory and capital expenses. The gap, reported by the Journal’s Esther Fung, reflects how the tariff-refund process has unfolded for the largest importers versus the smallest.
Large importers including Walmart and Apple serve as their own “importers of record” for many of their products, which has positioned them to claim refunds directly. Smaller businesses more often pay tariffs through the three shipping carriers, and Fung reported that those customers have had to wait longer to redeploy the funds.
The carriers described distinct approaches. FedEx says it is focusing on precision and regulatory compliance and has released hundreds of millions of dollars already. DHL says it proactively filed refund claims for all shipments where it acted as the importer of record, adding that around 92% of eligible customer refunds have been returned to customers as of mid-September.
Freight activity edges up at quarter end
The freight market itself offered a different signal. Total loads posted to the DAT One spot truckload market in the week ended October 3 rose 9% from the week before, the Journal reported, with the increase attributed to quarter-end shipping lifting freight activity.
Pressure on independent truckers
The refund delays for smaller shippers are unfolding alongside sustained pressure on the independent truckers who serve them. At a Flying J truck stop in Orange, Texas, where diesel hovered around $6.26 a gallon on Thursday, drivers were trimming every discretionary expense they could find to absorb the cost at the pump, the Journal reported.
Most independent truckers who operate job-to-job on the spot market pay for their own costs, including fuel. To make up for high prices at the pump, drivers cut elsewhere. Truckers said they were cooking meals inside their cabs, sleeping where they unhooked their trailers to avoid overnight parking fees, and waiting for rainstorms to clean their rigs rather than paying $100 for a wash. Some parked their trucks altogether.
“If my wheels ain’t turning, I ain’t earning,” Kevin Smith, a 50-year-old truck driver, told the Journal.
Small operators, which dominate registered motor carrier companies, can’t keep up. More than a dozen have filed for bankruptcy protection in the past month, the Journal reported, and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association has warned that more bankruptcies will follow if fuel prices do not drop.
G-7 response
President Trump’s threat of an export ban on diesel appeared to recede after G-7 countries agreed on Friday to release 100 million barrels of fuel and crude from emergency stocks. The Journal’s Rachel Wolfe wrote that the moves were an acknowledgment that soaring diesel prices are the clearest sign of inflationary pressures from the US conflict with Iran.
The article, by Mark R. Long, editor of the WSJ Logistics Report, drew on reporting by Rachel Wolfe and Esther Fung.