Two different agencies track diesel two different ways.

This week both of them set an all time record.

What The Numbers Actually Say

AAA tracks a daily national average off pump prices. Friday it read 6.06. First time it has ever been over 6.

EIA runs a weekly survey published Mondays. Week of September 7 it came in at 5.967, up 36.8 cents in one week. The old record on that series was 5.810, set June 20 of 2022.

Different methods, different days, same answer. Both broke.

A year ago the national average was around 3.70.

Worth being straight about one thing. These are nominal records. Adjusted for inflation, 2008 was still worse. The dollars are the highest ever, the pain is not unprecedented.

What It Costs Per Mile

At 6.06 a gallon.

Same trucks a year ago at 3.70.

Filling 100 gallons runs 606 today. Last year that was 370. That is 236 dollars a fill, gone, for the exact same fuel.

A semi taking 250 gallons goes from 925 to 1,515.

Run 2,500 miles a week at 6 mpg and you are spending about 983 dollars a week more than you did last September.

The Part Nobody Tells You

Most fuel surcharges are indexed to that EIA weekly number. The one that publishes Mondays off the prior week's survey.

So when diesel runs 37 cents in a week, the surcharge on your loads is still calculated off last week's price.

You eat the difference until it catches up. On a fast run up, you are always a week behind.

That is not somebody cheating you. That is how the index is built. But it is worth knowing which number your settlement is pegged to, because right now the gap between the two series is real money.

How It Hits Depending On Your Seat

Hourly company hand. You do not buy the fuel. It still shows up eventually, because it lands on your outfit's operating cost and budgets move in quarters.

Percentage of load. If the rate does not move and fuel does, the percentage is the same and the margin is not.

Owner operator or leased on. You are eating it live, right now, every fill.

Why It Moved

Trouble in the Strait of Hormuz has crude over 100 and refined product tighter than crude. Since late February the national diesel average is up about 60%.

Fall usually runs the other way. Gasoline typically softens after summer while diesel climbs into harvest and heating season. Regular gas is sitting around 4.29 right now.

Spread across the country is wide. California was 7.98 Friday. Oklahoma was 5.60.

Field Report

Drop your basin and what you actually paid this week.

Post the number off the pump, not the average. The average is a survey. What you paid is the truth.

And if you are running a surcharge, say whether it has caught up yet or whether you are still behind on it.