Diesel just set a record. The U.S. Energy Information Administration put the national average at $6.529 a gallon for the week of September 21, 2026, the highest weekly number since its series began in 1994.
The numbers
- $6.529 national average, week of September 21 (released September 22).
- +24.4¢ in one week. It was $6.285 on September 14 and $5.967 on September 7.
- +$2.78 a gallon over the same week last year.
- Midwest: $6.680, up 43¢ in a single week, the biggest jump of any region. California sits at $8.246 and the West Coast at $7.456.
What it costs the truck
Run the math on your own truck. At 6.5 miles per gallon, every extra dollar on the gallon is about 15 cents a mile. The year-over-year jump alone works out to roughly 43 cents a mile that did not exist last September. On a 2,500-mile week that is more than $1,000 gone before you get paid.
Fuel surcharge tables were built for slow moves, not 24 cents in a week. If your surcharge resets monthly, or your broker quotes all-in, you are carrying that gap yourself.
What we do about it
- Get the surcharge in writing on every load, and ask what week it is pegged to.
- Check the UnitedRigs fuel tracker. It pulls the EIA weekly number for every region.
- Relief at the fuel island is one of our five demands. October 1, we park it.
The next EIA reading comes out Tuesday, September 29. We will post it the day it drops.
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Sources: U.S. EIA Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update · EIA weekly diesel history. Cents-per-mile figures are UnitedRigs math at 6.5 mpg, not EIA figures. Last updated September 24, 2026.
