Diesel prices have climbed beyond $6.28 per gallon, with the national average reaching another record-setting level as of Sept. 14.
According to the latest update from the Energy Information Administration, released Tuesday, the national average price of diesel has increased by nearly 69 cents per gallon since Aug. 31.
The sharp increase comes as the trucking industry continues to absorb the impact of the Iran war, with escalating hostilities last week adding further pressure to fuel prices.
Speaking during a weekly market update Monday, DAT iQ Principal Analyst Dean Croke said the rapid increase is beginning to put significant pressure on trucking companies.
“Higher diesel prices are putting the squeeze on some carriers,” Croke said, pointing to growing concerns about whether operating trucks remains financially viable for parts of the industry. Some carriers, he noted, are already considering parking their trucks as costs continue to rise.
Diesel is generally treated as a pass-through cost for carriers, but the additional expense is not necessarily recovered immediately or in full.
Fuel surcharges are the primary mechanism used to account for those increases. They allow freight rates to be adjusted automatically based on inflation and changing fuel costs. These surcharges are commonly tied to EIA data, which provides an objective benchmark, although shippers and carriers remain free to negotiate their own rates, according to broker RJ Logistics.
“EIA’s weekly process is built for consistency: it collects retail on-highway diesel prices every Monday from a sample of outlets across the contiguous U.S., capturing prices as of 8:00 a.m.,” RJ Logistics said in an April blog post.
The EIA publishes the resulting figures every Tuesday, including breakdowns by region. However, those figures can still trail the actual costs being faced by carriers in real time.
Croke has previously pointed out to Trucking Dive that the lag between the weekly data collection and the publication of the numbers can delay the impact of sharply higher fuel expenses on contracted rates. As a result, carriers may have to absorb increased operating costs before those expenses are fully reflected in their pricing.
Fuel surcharges can help make individual trips economically worthwhile, but they do not eliminate all of the financial pressure associated with operating a truck. A route can remain difficult to justify, particularly when deadhead miles are involved and a return trip creates additional costs that outweigh the revenue generated.
Those concerns are increasingly weighing on carriers, Croke said during the update.
“We’re starting to see carriers become very concerned and quite restless about where things are going,” he said.
Higher fuel prices are also arriving at a difficult time for the trucking sector, which is dealing with several additional sources of pressure this year.
Consumer demand has remained sluggish across broad sections of the economy, while federal regulatory pressures are also affecting the industry. Those regulatory issues include rules surrounding immigrant driver credentials as well as compliance requirements related to driving school safety.
Taken together, these pressures are contributing to a freight market with less available freight and a shrinking pool of carriers available to move it.
