Roundup

Diesel climbs and enforcement bites, but spot demand firms into Q3

National diesel is $5.454 a gallon, up 46.9% on the year, while a parking-fine and border-check wave runs alongside firming truckload spot rates.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

National on-highway diesel averaged **$5.454 a gallon** in the week to 17 August, up 3.7% on the week and 46.9% on the year (EIA). The map is what to route around: California is $6.785 and the West Coast $6.203, while the Lower Atlantic at $5.204 is the cheapest region on the board — a spread of about $1.58 a gallon between where you fill cheap and where you fill dear. These are retail pump averages including tax, surveyed each Monday, so read them as direction; contract buyers at the truck stop pay less.

Two enforcement stories are worth knowing before you park or cross a line. Land Line reports a driver in Charlotte, N.C. was hit with a bill of around $9,000 after running roughly 30 minutes past a parking limit, part of renewed scrutiny of predatory towing. Separately, Transport Topics reports a border crackdown has blocked hundreds of foreign drivers over cabotage violations, and FreightWaves reports a Mexican trucking group is asking Washington to clarify B-1 visa revocations that affect cross-border work.

On the inspection side, FreightWaves notes that in May's International Roadcheck, English language proficiency broke into the top five driver violation categories for the first time — a category that was not there in 2025. Worth knowing if you run lanes where you are likely to be pulled in.

It is not all one way. The Trucker reports net trailer orders beat seasonal expectations in July with backlogs holding steady, per ACT Research, and FreightWaves reports broker RXO saw its truckload spot-rate index post its largest sequential gain in five years, with the momentum carrying into the third quarter. That is the demand side firming even as the fuel line climbs — the two sit in the same week from opposite directions.

The one figure to act on is still the fuel spread. Nothing above changes the load you are already booked on, but where you top off between now and next week is a choice, and this week that choice is worth about a dollar-fifty a gallon.

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Figure 1

On-highway diesel price, National average

Dollars per gallon Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration National average. A retail pump average including taxes, surveyed every Monday. Fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less than this, and the gap widens when prices move fast -- so read it as direction, not as what you will pay.
Figure 2

On-highway diesel price, California

Dollars per gallon Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration California. A retail pump average including taxes, surveyed every Monday. Fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less than this, and the gap widens when prices move fast -- so read it as direction, not as what you will pay.
Figure 3

On-highway diesel price, Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C)

Dollars per gallon Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C). A retail pump average including taxes, surveyed every Monday. Fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less than this, and the gap widens when prices move fast -- so read it as direction, not as what you will pay.