The national average price for on-highway diesel fuel rose for a fourth consecutive week, according to the latest Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update released August 4 by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The average price reached $5.348 per gallon for the week ending August 3, up 3.5 cents from the previous week and nearly $1.55 higher than the same week a year earlier.
Regional prices varied widely across the country. The Gulf Coast, which includes major refining and trucking corridors across Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, averaged $5.141 per gallon, up 5.4 cents on the week. The Midwest posted the steepest weekly jump, rising 6.6 cents to $5.262 per gallon, while the West Coast remained the most expensive region at $6.130 per gallon and California topped the list at $6.716.
The increases follow a sharper run-up in late June and July, when national on-highway diesel prices climbed from $4.67 per gallon on June 29 to more than $5.30 by late July, a jump of nearly 14% over roughly a month. Diesel represents a significant share of total operating cost for trucking fleets, and sustained price increases typically flow through to freight rates via fuel surcharge programs tied to the EIA's weekly benchmark figures.
Fleet managers and owner-operators use the EIA's weekly diesel benchmark to set and adjust fuel surcharges on shipments, meaning the recent run of increases is likely to show up in shipper invoices in the coming weeks. The EIA is scheduled to release its next weekly diesel price update on August 11.
Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration -- https://www.eia.gov/petroleum/gasdiesel/