Diesel prices are a hot topic for the trucking industry. The issue was rated in the top 10 list of the American Transportation Research Institute’s Top Industry Issues survey. And it even surpassed the driver shortage, which has ranked as the most pressing issue for the past 5 years.
This year has seen highly unpredictable and volatile diesel prices. A significant contributor to this is the currently instated ban on Russian oil which is a direct response to the country invading Ukraine and beginning a war. The entire globe has been facing an oil shortage as a result, with the United States dipping into their emergency oil reserve.
As that reserve begins to run low, U.S. diesel prices have become even harder to predict and nearly impossible to maintain. The country has seen dramatic spikes and drops since the summer when fuel prices first skyrocketed.
The Energy Information Administration (EIA) has been closely monitoring the diesel price crisis, releasing information on it weekly. The EIA has monitored fuel prices in 10 U.S. regions. On Oct. 31, data collected by the EIA showed that diesel prices for the nation had dropped 2.4 cents.
This drop follows a 50.5 cent increase that occurred over the previous three weeks. The dip, albeit small, comes as a relief from three weeks of increasing prices.
Despite any relief, when put in comparison to October 2021, one gallon of diesel has increased a total of $1.59.
When taking a close look at the 10 regions monitored in the EIA’s findings, six regions saw a decline in diesel prices while four saw an increase. The six regions that saw a decline were: the Midwest, the Gulf Coast, the Rocky Mountain region, the West Coast, the West Coast less California, and California; the regions that saw an uptick were: The East Coast, New England, Central Atlantic, and Lower Atlantic. The most significant drop was in California at 7.7 cents and, conversely, the highest increase was 7.9 cents in New England.
The national average for diesel prices is now at $5.317 a gallon.
