The Positioning Matrix.

This week's read: Rates rose on fuel and fell underneath it — that is the week. DAT One van all-in printed $2.96 for 13–19 Sep (+4¢), but DAT says diesel accounted for more than the entire increase: benchmark linehaul slipped to $2.17 (−3¢, +33% YoY) and RateCast now has it at $2.15 by late October, while diesel printed a third straight record at $6.529 (+24.4¢) with the Midwest at $6.680 (+43¢) during the Joliet outage. Capacity did not come back: van load-to-truck 11.2 against 5.9 a year ago, van truck posts −30% YoY, the fewest week-38 equipment posts in DAT's records, SONAR rejections at 14.21% on 23 Sep with the Midwest at the center, and Houston flipping from one of the loosest markets to the second-tightest of 135 in under two weeks as the September import boxes reach the trailers. The first relief signs showed up at the end of the week — Joliet back in service, GasBuddy's retail diesel −4.1¢, the White House off a blunt export ban — so the play this week is symmetry: floating surcharge on every load, linehaul held at $2.15–$2.17, and a surcharge table that steps down no faster than it stepped up, ahead of Tuesday's EIA print, the ~6 Oct STEO and a 2027 bid season that opens in the middle of peak.