Good morning,

The U.S. isn’t banning diesel exports—at least for now.

The White House on Wednesday denied a report that it was preparing a 90-day ban on diesel exports to bring down soaring domestic fuel prices.

Diesel prices have climbed above $6.50 a gallon, with disruptions from the wars in Iran and Ukraine tightening global oil and fuel supplies. That’s putting pressure on farmers, truckers, and rail operators.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the administration isn't considering a blanket export ban. Instead, the administration is discussing ways to get more diesel into the U.S. while maintaining flows of gasoline and jet fuel.

Let's dive into the top news.

FedEx will raise its U.S. export and import list rates by an average of 5.9% from Jan. 4, 2027, but the increase will be higher for many shippers once individual services, minimum charges, and surcharges are factored in.

Key Details: Rates for Ground Economy, Ground Multiweight, International Premium, and International Priority Direct Distribution will also increase, along with minimum charges for U.S. and international package services.

Additional handling fees for oversized, overweight, or specially packaged shipments will rise from $29.50-$40.75 to $31.75-$43.75, while U.S. oversize charges will increase from $255-$330 to $270-$355.

What’s the Impact? The impact will vary by shipment profile. Five of FedEx’s seven major services are increasing by more than 5.9%, while Ground rates will rise between 6.06% and 6.15% across zones. Extended Delivery Area surcharges will increase 9.09%, extended Ground DAS by 8.11%, and Additional Handling by roughly 7.5%.

Big Picture: The increases could be particularly significant for shippers moving lightweight, short-zone Ground packages; longer-zone shipments; oversized or additional-handling packages; residential deliveries; and certain expedited and international shipments.

Kuehne+Nagel has signed a long-term strategic agreement with Amazon that expands its role in the e-commerce giant’s logistics network. The Swiss logistics provider will support Amazon Web Services’ data center infrastructure, handling logistics from construction and equipment deployment to maintenance, upgrades, and expansion.

Key Details: Kuehne+Nagel is already a preferred carrier and customs broker for Amazon, with expertise in less-than-truckload and air cargo. The partnership is intended to strengthen supply-chain resilience and operational efficiency as Amazon continues to build out its global cloud infrastructure. U.S. containerized imports of goods linked to data-center construction reached 92,705 TEUs in August, according to PIERS.

Big Picture: Kuehne+Nagel’s expanded role with Amazon gives it a larger position in Amazon’s logistics and AWS data-center supply chain, covering equipment deployment, maintenance and expansion.

The U.S. Surface Transportation Board has rejected petitions from BNSF Railway, CSX Transportation and a coalition of shippers seeking to deny Union Pacific’s proposed $85 billion merger with Norfolk Southern.

Key Details: The groups argued the railroads failed to provide enough evidence to show the deal could qualify for approval. At the same time, the STB said the petitions raised important questions to examine during the formal review. The decision does not indicate whether the STB supports the merger.

What’s Next: The STB had rejected the companies’ original application in January over missing market-share projections and an incomplete agreement. The railroads resubmitted it in April with updated market-share data, additional competitive analysis and the full agreement, and the board accepted the revised filing in May before restarting its formal review in August.

Big Picture: The proposed merger would create the first U.S. transcontinental railroad under a single operator. Union Pacific says combining the networks would make rail more competitive with long-haul trucking, generate billions of dollars in savings for shippers, and eliminate time-consuming interchange points along the Mississippi River.

U.S. shippers are increasingly turning to their own trucks as the for-hire market becomes tougher. A new National Private Truck Council survey found that 71% of shippers plan to expand their private fleets, with those fleets already moving 9.1% more freight in 2025 than the year before.

Tightening Capacity: The shift comes as available trucking capacity continues to tighten. Dry-van truck postings on spot-market load boards are down about 30% YoY, while spot rates have climbed 30%–40%.

Rather than replacing their transportation providers, shippers are using private fleets to supplement carrier capacity and gain more leverage: 76% say they use their fleets to negotiate service and rates with for-hire carriers.

The role of private fleets is also changing. Customer service remains the top reason companies operate them, cited by 85% of respondents, but 73% now point to greater supply-chain control, up 14 percentage points from 2025. In 2024, just 13% cited supply-chain control as a primary purpose.

U.S. importers are pushing back against a new Customs and Border Protection proposal that would require companies to provide more data on their overseas supply chains.

What’s Happening: The proposal aims to give CBP greater visibility into cargo movements and detect illicit transshipment, but importers say they cannot guarantee the accuracy or even availability of records created by foreign exporters, freight forwarders, and customs agents.

New Idea: Hapag-Lloyd is backing a different approach, urging CBP to use technology already deployed across the shipping industry. The carrier says its roughly 2 million IoT-enabled dry containers can provide real-time shipment telemetry to identify unusual routing and potential transshipment without creating new reporting requirements.

U.S. intermodal freight continued to grow in August, with total volume reaching 1.68 million units, up 4.1% year over year, according to the Intermodal Association of North America (IANA). Domestic containers led the growth, rising 8.1%, while trailers increased 5.9%; international ISO containers were up just 0.4%.

Key Details: The shift is increasingly being driven by pressure in trucking. Spot-market dry-van postings are about 30% below last year, while spot rates are 30%–40% higher, making rail a more attractive alternative for shippers.

IANA says high diesel prices and shrinking driver capacity—partly tied to tighter CDL and English-language enforcement—are pushing more freight toward intermodal.

Future Outlook: Through the first eight months of 2026, intermodal volume was up 2.9% to 11.05 million units, with domestic equipment up 7.9%. IANA says the current capacity squeeze gives the industry an opportunity to turn the recent surge into sustained intermodal growth, rather than another temporary peak.

More than 200 importers, exporters and shipping groups are urging the U.S. Trade Representative to extend the suspension of port fees and tariffs targeting Chinese-built vessels before the current exemption expires on Nov. 9.

Key Details: The coalition, which includes the International Chamber of Shipping and World Shipping Council, says the measures could affect vessel deployment and ripple through global shipping networks because Chinese-built ships make up a significant share of global capacity.

The fees were originally suspended for one year in November 2025, alongside China’s suspension of retaliatory fees on U.S.-linked shipping. If the U.S. does not extend the suspension, both sets of charges could return, adding another layer of cost and uncertainty for carriers and shippers already dealing with elevated ocean freight, trucking, warehousing, insurance and inventory costs.

What’s Next: The appeal comes as Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet at the White House for trade talks, although neither leader specifically addressed the maritime fees in their opening remarks. The shipping industry is now looking to the negotiations for clarity before the November deadline.

Amazon has launched Standard Ocean Express, a new transportation service that moves West Coast inventory through the Port of Los Angeles with direct rail service to Amazon’s East Coast fulfillment centers.

The company says the service will shorten transit times compared with standard routing, helping sellers reduce stockout risks during periods of high demand.

Key Details: The service is part of Amazon Global Logistics and is available for Seller Managed Placement bookings, which move inventory directly to regional cross-dock facilities to improve distribution across Amazon’s network.

Sellers will also see ocean rates and estimated delivery windows at booking, allowing them to balance speed and cost, although Amazon did not disclose pricing.

Big Picture: The launch expands Amazon’s logistics offering beyond ocean and air freight to include a dedicated rail option for cross-country inventory movement. It comes as Amazon expands Amazon Supply Chain Services, which now includes freight, trucking, parcel shipping, and bulk storage.

China-to-U.S. shipping rates are climbing sharply, with the average cost of moving a 40-foot container from Shanghai to New York reaching $10,394, up 6.9% and crossing $10,000 for the first time since July 2022. Rates from Shanghai to Los Angeles also rose 4.9% to $7,712.

Rising Rates: The surge has pushed U.S.-bound freight rates sharply higher since July 30, with New York rates up 37.2% and Los Angeles rates up 34.3%. By contrast, China-to-Europe rates have fallen for seven consecutive weeks, with Shanghai-Genoa down 28.7% to $4,016 and Shanghai-Rotterdam down 22.3% to $3,626, amid weaker demand and the gradual return of Suez Canal services.

What’s Next: Drewry expects trans-Pacific rates to rise further ahead of China’s Oct. 1-7 Golden Week, when exporters typically rush shipments before the holiday.

Meanwhile, vessel schedules are becoming less reliable, with combined rollovers and departure delays sometimes stretching shipments by nearly two weeks. At Shanghai, average vessel waiting times increased from 65 hours to 78 hours between the weeks of Aug. 31-Sept. 6 and Sept. 7-13.