Fuel Hike Digs Deeper Into Pockets

As reports of fluctuations in the price of oil swirl throughout the news media, one thing remains certain: It is costing a lot more to fill up with diesel fuel this year — and it is likely to cost even more in the near future.

	Fuel Prices
	Week of Nov. 22:
	source	price	change
	DOE	128.9	+2.8
	Comdata	125.0	+2.6
	OPIS self-serve	126.4	+2.8
	OPIS wholesale	74.2	+3.2

According to the Energy Information Administration, the national average price of diesel fuel on Nov. 22 stood at $1.289 a gallon, 2.8 cents higher than the previous week. It was also 27.7 cents above the $1.012 posted on Nov. 23, 1998, and 35.4 cents above the historic low of 95.3 cents a gallon reported on Feb. 22, 1999.

This means a long-haul trucker filling a pair of 150-gallon tanks on Nov. 22 paid about $83 more than he did at this time last year.

And that trucker has seen the price of filling his tanks go from $286 to $387 in nine months. If he gets 7 miles to the gallon — about average for a big rig — it now costs him 4 cents a mile more to do his job than it did last year.

For the full story, see the Nov. 29 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.