Editorial · Monday, June 22, 2026

Shippers Are Still Paying 2022 Prices in a 2026 Market — And That Ends Now

Emergency fuel surcharges were a crisis-era band-aid, and every day shippers fail to renegotiate them is another day they're subsidizing a market that no longer exists.

This week, a quietly important story surfaced that deserves far more attention than it's getting: shippers are being urged to revisit emergency fuel surcharges that were baked into contracts during the supply chain chaos of the early 2020s. I want to be direct — if you are a shipper still paying those surcharges without renegotiation in June 2026, you are not a victim of the market. You are a victim of your own inertia. This is a shipper's market. Capacity is abundant. The leverage is yours. Use it.

The conditions that justified emergency surcharges are gone. Diesel prices have normalized. The panic-driven rate environment that carriers rightfully capitalized on in 2021 and 2022 has long since unwound. And yet, buried inside thousands of shipper contracts right now are surcharge line items that were never sunset, never renegotiated, and never challenged. Carriers aren't going to volunteer to give that money back. That's not a criticism — it's business. But shippers who aren't auditing these contracts in the current environment are leaving real money on the table every single week.

Look at the broader signals in the market right now. Saia has opened new terminals for three consecutive months — a clear expansion play that signals carriers are competing aggressively for freight volume, not rationing it. Duluth Trading just handed Amazon its e-commerce fulfillment business, a move that puts additional pressure on traditional carrier networks to win shipper loyalty through pricing and service, not scarcity. Meanwhile, Americold, DP World, and CPKC are unveiling an entirely new import-export hub at Port Saint John — infrastructure investment at scale signals a long-term bet on capacity availability, not tightness. Every one of these data points tells the same story: this is not a carrier's market.

For brokers, this moment is an opportunity to demonstrate genuine value. Go back to your shipper clients with a contract audit. Find the legacy surcharges. Quantify what renegotiation would save them annually. That conversation builds the kind of trust that wins renewals. For carriers, the warning is equally plain: if your pricing still reflects 2022 emergency conditions, your contract renewal conversations this fall are going to be painful. Get ahead of it now by offering competitive structures proactively rather than waiting to be forced.

The freight market in the second half of 2026 will reward preparation, not nostalgia. Shippers who audit their surcharge exposure before Q3 contract cycles close will enter 2027 with a structural cost advantage over competitors who didn't. The window is open. The leverage is real. There is no excuse left for leaving it unused.