US Freight Market Briefing: Contract Rates Surge, Jones Act Waiver Extended, and AI Reshapes Logistics Operations

## US Freight Market Briefing ### Contract Rates Outpace Spot Market as Strategic Shift Accelerates A widening gap between spot and contract freight rates is drawing attention from logistics strategists, with contract rates now running nearly 20% higher year-over-year even as spot rates record a modest monthly decline, according to FreightWaves SONAR data. Analysts caution against interpreting the short-term spot softening as a broader market downturn, pointing instead to a deliberate strategic pivot by shippers toward intermodal solutions in key freight corridors. The divergence suggests that carriers and shippers locked into longer-term agreements are insulating themselves from near-term volatility — a dynamic that could reshape procurement strategies heading into the next contracting cycle. ### Jones Act Waiver Extended, But Fuel Price Impact Remains Marginal President Trump has again extended a waiver to the Jones Act, the longstanding federal law requiring that cargo transported between US ports be carried aboard American-built, American-crewed vessels. The extension, reported by FreightWaves, was framed in part as a measure to ease domestic fuel supply logistics. However, industry analysts say the real-world impact on retail gasoline prices has been negligible — amounting to 'pennies per gallon' at most. The Jones Act remains a politically sensitive piece of maritime legislation, and repeated waiver extensions continue to fuel debate over the law's long-term role in US coastal trade policy. ### AI Integration Gains Ground in Trucking and Intermodal Operations On the technology front, FreightWaves profiles Overroute, a logistics AI firm that has entered a partnership with JB Hunt — one of North America's largest intermodal and trucking operators. Overroute CEO Alex Reed describes the company's 'carrier-native' philosophy, which prioritises frontline operator adoption over top-down automation mandates. The platform deploys AI agents to automate workflows and optimise asset utilisation, reflecting a broader industry trend toward embedding artificial intelligence directly into day-to-day freight operations rather than treating it as a back-office tool. ### UPS-Teamsters 2028 Contract Looms as Industry Inflection Point Looking further ahead, freight analysts are already flagging the 2028 UPS-Teamsters contract negotiation as a potential watershed moment for the entire parcel and last-mile delivery sector. According to FreightWaves, one industry expert argues the outcome will have cascading effects across Amazon, FedEx, the US Postal Service, and Walmart's logistics networks. For maritime and port operators handling containerised e-commerce volumes, the downstream implications of any major labour disruption or structural shift in parcel economics could be significant. *Sources: FreightWaves*