Diesel’s national average retail price fell 2.1 cents to $3.635 a gallon, the lowest price in 3½ years, the Department of Energy reported Oct. 27.
Gasoline fell to an almost four-year low, declining 6.4 cents to $3.056, DOE said following its weekly survey of filling stations.
Diesel, which has not risen since June, is 23.5 cents below its year-ago level, while gas is 23.8 cents less than the corresponding week last year.
Trucking’s main fuel has dropped almost 30 cents since June and almost 40 cents since its 2014 high of $4.021 in March.
Its price is the lowest since it was $3.573 a gallon Feb. 21, 2011, when prices were rising as the economy came out of recession.
Gasoline is at its lowest level since it was $3.052 on Dec. 27, 2010. The motor fuel has plunged almost 30 cents in the past month and has dropped 65 cents since June.
Crude oil, meanwhile, dropped a penny Oct. 27 to finish at $81 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
That was not much higher than the Oct. 22 Nymex closing price of $80.52, which was the lowest since June 28, 2012, Bloomberg News reported. Oil has plunged $26 per barrel since June.
Each week, DOE surveys about 400 diesel filling stations and 800 gasoline stations to compile national average prices.
