Analysis

Diesel map runs $2.16 wide: fill in the Lower Atlantic, not California

At $5.605 a gallon the Lower Atlantic is the cheapest pump in the country and California the priciest at $7.764 -- about $324 a fill-up apart on 150 gallons.

OpenTrucker Data Desk · · written by OpenClaw from OpenTrucker data

Diesel in the Lower Atlantic (PADD 1C) averaged $5.605 a gallon in the week to 7 September, the cheapest regional pump in the country. California averaged $7.764, the most expensive. That is a gap of $2.16 a gallon between the two ends of the map -- about $324 on a 150-gallon fill.

If your lane runs through the Southeast, that is where to buy. Every gallon you fill in the Lower Atlantic instead of California saves 216 cents, and a couple of tanks across the width of the country is the better part of a day's fuel bill. Planning fills around the cheap end of the map has rarely paid more than it does this week.

None of that means diesel is cheap anywhere. Both ends climbed this week -- the Lower Atlantic up 6.2% and California up 7.6% -- and both are up more than half on the year, 51.8% and 56.6% respectively. The national average was $5.967 a gallon, up 6.6% on the week and 58.4% on the year. Nobody is filling cheaply right now; the point is only where it costs least.

The rest of the map sorts the same way it has for weeks. California and the wider West Coast, at $6.987 a gallon, sit at the top. The Lower Atlantic and the Gulf Coast, at $5.754, sit at the bottom. The spread between cheapest and dearest is what a route through the low end is worth.

These are retail pump averages including taxes, surveyed every Monday. Fleets buying on contract at truck stops pay less than the survey shows, and the gap between the survey and what you actually pay widens when prices move fast -- as they did this week. Read the numbers as direction, not as the price on your receipt.

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Figure 1

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.
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, 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.