TL;DR
- The September 2026 Logistics Managers’ Index puts Aggregate Logistics Costs at 246.1, the highest reading since April 2022.
- Freight is driving the surge, with Transportation Prices at 92.7, Transportation Capacity contracting for ten straight months and diesel above $6.80 a gallon.
- Warehousing space is tightening fast, and smaller firms are feeling it more than larger ones.
- Executives expect little relief over the next year, and this spike traces back to geopolitical conflict instead of pandemic disruption.
- Joining a GPO gives you access to pooled volume contracts with carriers like FedEx and TRIOSE, with savings of up to 50% on ground, 60% on express and 70% on international shipping.
- Many Una contracts lock in pricing and cap increases for several years, which helps protect your budget from inflation.
Nobody enjoys watching the numbers spin at the gas pump, but at least you only have one tank to fill. A carrier has to fill an entire fleet, and the cost of all that diesel travels downstream until it lands on a freight invoice with your company’s name on it.
The latest logistics data shows just how heavy that invoice has become.
The September Logistics Managers’ Index, released on October 6, puts Aggregate Logistics Costs at 246.1, up 2.5 points from August and the highest reading since April 2022. Gas isn’t the only culprit. The index combines inventory costs, warehousing prices and transportation prices on a scale from 0 to 300, with 150 as the breakeven point, so a reading of 246.1 shows costs expanding quickly across all three.
What the September Numbers Show
Freight does most of the damage. Transportation Prices rose to 92.7, the fifth reading above 90 in six months, while Transportation Capacity fell to 34.4 and has now contracted for ten straight months. Diesel averaged $6.832 per gallon in the last week of September, up more than 70% since the conflict with Iran began, and carriers tied to service contracts written when fuel was far cheaper are seeing their margins squeezed.
Warehousing is tightening as well, with Warehousing Capacity dropping to 39.3, the fastest contraction since March 2022. Smaller firms feel it most, reporting warehousing capacity of 36.0 against 44.1 for firms with 1,000 or more employees.
Relief looks distant. Logistics executives forecast Transportation Capacity at 37.9 and Transportation Prices at 86.1 a year from now, and Crypto Briefing’s coverage of the March index shows this has been building all year, with transportation prices already at 89.4 that month.
Electrification of big rigs still appears to be some way off, although there is progress for small to medium trucks: FedEx is spending $300 million on medium-duty electric trucks in a belief it will save them $800 million in diesel.
The Fix: Join a GPO
When freight rates climb month after month and capacity keeps shrinking, a buyer shipping alone has very little leverage. Carriers usually base their discounts on volume, so a business with modest parcel spend ends up paying close to published rates plus whatever surcharges come with them.
Joining a group purchasing organization like Una changes that by pooling the shipping volume of thousands of members, which means you buy on contracts negotiated for the whole group instead of for your own shipment count.
Deep Discounts From Top Carriers
Una’s shipping program gives members access to contracts with FedEx and TRIOSE, among other providers. The FedEx agreement offers savings of up to 50% on ground, 60% on express and 70% on international shipping, along with reductions on surcharges, free spend analyses and access to customer support teams.
TRIOSE, which focuses on helping healthcare systems manage their supply chains, offers preferred discounts on inbound, outbound and large cargo shipping, plus a 99% claim recovery rate on lost or damaged shipments.
More than 2,000 businesses already use the program, and members save an average of 20% across ground, express, export and freight.
Locking in a Price Protects You From Inflation
Several Una contracts lock in pricing and cap increases for several years at a time. When the LMI climbs, a locked or capped rate means your costs move far less than the market does. It also hands your finance team something they rarely get in a freight market like this one, a number they can budget against for the year ahead.
Price protection limits how far costs can rise, and the terms differ by contract, so ask your sourcing advisor at Una how each agreement handles fuel surcharges and how long the protection lasts.
What This Looks Like in Practice
A medical equipment manufacturer shipping millions of dollars of packages every year had run into roadblocks locking in favorable pricing, managing carrier relationships and budgeting for surcharge swings, even at that scale. Its procurement team had limited resources to fix the problem alone. After a discovery call, Una compared the company’s shipping data across several providers and connected it to a contract. The member now saves more than $650,000 a year, a 23% reduction, and started saving within a month of getting connected.
The same approach works for a much smaller buyer. Linden Square, a Midwest specialty company that creates curated corporate gifts, watched shipping become its largest cost as rates and surcharges climbed, and suppliers still treated it as a small account. Una ran a cost analysis on its real shipping data, which showed potential savings of more than 26%, and the company was connected to the discounted program within eight weeks of joining. It has since added contracts in other categories.
How to Get Started
The process has three steps: a discovery call with a Sourcing Advisor, a cost analysis in which your real shipping data goes to Una’s supplier base for comparison, and a connection to the contract that fits.
Membership is free, with no purchasing requirements or exclusivities, so you can keep any carrier relationships that already work for you.
With logistics costs at their highest in more than four years, this is a good moment to see how your current rates compare.
Request a free shipping cost analysis at una.com/shipping and find out what locking in a rate could save you.
