For immediate release · Harlow Freight · 19 October 2026
Midwest refrigerated freight bookings up 240% year on year, Harlow Freight data shows
CHICAGO. Bookings for refrigerated freight originating in the Midwest have risen 240% year on year1 on the Harlow Freight platform, according to aggregate booking data released today by the company. Over the same period, bookings across all other freight categories grew 31%2.
The two trends tracked each other closely until early this year. The gap opened in March 2026 and has widened in every month since.3 By September, refrigerated loads made up 18% of Midwest bookings, up from 7% a year earlier4.
The figures describe what Harlow Freight customers book on its own platform. They do not describe the wider freight market, and the company is not making a claim about refrigerated volumes outside its customer base. An industry-wide comparison would need a source Harlow does not hold, and none is offered here.
“Our customers are telling us something through what they book,” said Nadia Okonjo, Director of Communications at Harlow Freight. “We wanted to publish it with the method attached, so that anyone can check how we got there.”
All figures are aggregates drawn from groups of at least fifty accounts. Accounts opened in the last ninety days are excluded from the headline comparison. The query behind each figure is listed with this release.
About Harlow Freight. Harlow Freight makes quoting and booking software for business shippers across the US and Canada.