CRAIG FULLER: February the weakest month of the year.

Truckload rejections pop to 14.01%, near the highest levels they've been in years. It is notable that this is happening in Mid-February, normally one of the worst months for freight.

Shippers should prepare for significant rate increases this year and even if carriers… pic.twitter.com/HC0Fg63uBo

— Craig Fuller 🛩🚛🚂⚓️ (@FreightAlley) February 17, 2026

February the weakest month of the year.

Road conditions continue to be tight.  Container rejections are at 14.01%.  This is a sign that capacity is not loosening up despite the fact that weather is well behind us, in fact, last week was one of the best weeks of weather that we've had in some time and yet container rejections stayed extremely high compared to where they'd been in many years.  What I think is really interesting is that we are starting to see that as conditions tighten up we are hearing that shippers are finding it harder and harder to rely upon their carriers to take freight at the existing rates.  We're also finding that brokers are talking a lot about the fact that they're having to pay out significantly for spot market capacity.  If conditions hold, if we see strong container rejections continue for the next couple of weeks, it's a very clear sign that this market is not going to suddenly flip into the kinds of conditions that we've known the last couple of years.  This market is completely different.  The fact that this is happening mid-February should be noted by everybody that's in freight.  This is very atypical. February is arguably one of the weakest months of the year.  January you end up with a lot of returns that drive a lot of the market, gift card season that drives a lot of the market.  February doesn't really have a ton of things that are real catalysts and we don't see catalysts in Freight until March where you start seeing the spring shipping season, things like gardening, Construction, produce.  Those all start in March and beverages heat up as we get into the later portions of the spring as the weather gets hotter.  Things like beer and water bottles and sodas and all that stuff does peak as we head into the summer.  And so the fact that this is happening in February is the strongest sign that the great Freight recession is clearly over with and I think it's something that shippers should take note.  It's going to be harder and harder to rely upon your motor carriers to honor those existing rates.  If you've done an RFP this season [Request for Proposal], you should expect that the carriers that did these RFPs are probably going to expect some kinds of rate concessions as you head into the year because they probably had an orientation of thinking that Freight would be softer than it has turned out to be.  Therefore, prepare to ensure that you have some backups built into your routing guides . . .