TL;DR
Diesel has climbed to $5.45/gallon -- up 45% from pre-war levels -- and truckers are absorbing the cost before it reaches grocery shelves and construction sites.
MSM Perspective
WFSB and CNN reported the surge as a cascading economic threat, with the freight industry as the first link in a chain that ends at consumer prices.
X Perspective
Truckers on X describe the fuel surcharge math: at $5.45 diesel, a cross-country haul costs $800 more than it did five weeks ago, with rates that haven't adjusted.
Diesel is now $5.45 a gallon nationally, up from $3.76 before the war began on February 28 [1]. That is a 45% increase in five weeks. The freight industry, which runs on diesel the way the economy runs on freight, is absorbing the hit first.
CNN reported that diesel is the largest single day-to-day expense in trucking, and the 41% surge since the start of the war has added hundreds of dollars to every cross-country haul [2]. FreightWaves noted that while diesel crossed $5, linehaul spot rates "have not moved much" -- meaning truckers are eating the difference between fuel costs and the rates shippers are willing to pay [3].
WFSB confirmed the $5.45 national average, reporting that regular gasoline has also crossed $4 per gallon for the first time since 2022 [1]. The Wall Street Journal described diesel's trajectory in starker terms: "$5 diesel is crushing truckers. It will soon be felt across the economy" [4].
The math is simple and unforgiving. Everything that moves by truck -- food, building materials, medical supplies, consumer goods -- costs more to move. Truckers absorb it first. Carriers absorb it next. Consumers absorb it last. The timeline between the fuel pump and the grocery shelf is measured in weeks, not months.
Diesel is 41 cents from its all-time high of $5.82, set in June 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. The war has not ended. The price has not peaked.
-- Theo Kaplan, San Francisco
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