Weekly retail diesel price harkens back to 2014 levels

The weekly Department of Energy/Energy Information Administration retail diesel price is at a level that hasn’t been seen since December 2014.

At $3.406 per gallon, the benchmark price for fuel surcharges has not been at this lofty level since a price of $3.419/gallon on Dec. 15, 2014. The difference is that price was a one-week stop on a long slide that began that fall, with the DOE/EIA retail diesel price bottoming out below $2/g in February 2016. (It had been above $4 in February 2014.)

Diesel’s current increase can be measured from numerous stops along the volatile market of the last year. But on Nov. 2, the price of $3.372/g was the low point before a run of 20 consecutive weeks of increases, which was later followed by 12 consecutive weeks of increases in May to help boost it toward its current level.

There is no relief in sight for truckers paying these prices. The CME commodity price of ultra low sulfur diesel on Monday rose 2.89 cents/g, settling at $2.296/g. That is the highest level since October 2018.