The national average diesel fuel price has quietly risen by 20 cents over the past month, according to AAA data.
The average per-gallon diesel price at the pump currently sits at around $4.51, up from around $4.31 one month ago, according to AAA gas price data. The elevated prices are still a far cry from June 2022’s all-time high, when per-gallon diesel prices reached almost $5.82 per gallon.
Rising diesel prices contribute to driving economy-wide inflation, because the trucks that transport about 73% of the nation’s freight run on diesel, according to NPR. Most trucking companies tend to pass on these extra costs to their various customers by implementing fuel surcharges. (RELATED: ‘Bidenomics’ Is Driving The Trucking Industry Off The Road, Economists Say)
Electric trucks could mean higher costs for deliverieshttps://t.co/W8o9RFhrbN
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However, some smaller trucking companies are unable to pass on the added costs, meaning that elevated fuel costs threaten their ability to continue to operate, according to NPR. In a scenario where smaller trucking companies have to close down, fewer truckers are on the road, which in turn results in further increases in the price of shipping goods.
Beyond trucking, diesel fuel is used to power a wide range of manufacturing and industrial equipment, according to NPR. Increases in the price of fuel make operating this equipment more expensive, and many of those costs are passed on to consumers, much in the same way as trucking.
The national average per-gallon price for regular gas has also increased by about 5 cents in the last week, according to AAA data.
The jumps in gas prices, both for diesel and for regular, prompted Republican Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp to announce Tuesday that he is temporarily suspending state taxes on the two types of fuels to give Georgians some degree of relief at the pump, the Gainesville Times reported.
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