Diesel Posts Record One-Week Jump of 96 Cents as Strait of Hormuz Traffic Collapses
The federal benchmark that sets most fuel surcharges rose to $4.859 a gallon in the week of March 9, 2026, the largest weekly increase since the series began in 1994.
In March 2026, truckers saw the sharpest one-week rise in diesel prices on record. The U.S. Energy Information Administration's weekly average retail price for on-highway diesel, published March 10, 2026, came in at $4.859 a gallon for the week of March 9. That was up 96.2 cents from $3.897 a week earlier.
The EIA series, which most fuel surcharge programs are pegged to, dates back to March 1994. FreightWaves reported that the previous record weekly gain was 74.5 cents, set on March 7, 2022, just after Russia invaded Ukraine. In percentage terms the March 2026 move was about 25%, and Avery Vise, a trucking analyst at FTR Transportation Intelligence, told The Wall Street Journal it was the largest weekly increase on record measured either way.
How fast prices climbed
The jump capped eight straight weekly increases. EIA data show the benchmark at $3.459 in the week of January 12, so by March 9 it had risen $1.40 a gallon. A year earlier, in the week of March 10, 2025, the average was $3.582.
FreightWaves reported that the benchmark had not been this high since December 5, 2022, when it stood at $4.967.
What drove it
The spike followed the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran and the near-shutdown of tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. FreightWaves cited an S&P Global Energy factbox showing that only four ships transited the strait on March 8, compared with 91 on February 28, and said a Goldman Sachs report put traffic at 10% of normal. S&P Global Energy also reported that about 17 million barrels a day of crude and refined products had failed to leave the Persian Gulf the previous week, partly because Iraq and Kuwait had shut in production.
Futures markets were extremely volatile. Ultra-low sulfur diesel on the CME traded as high as $4.4715 a gallon in the first hours of the trading week before settling at $3.5866 on March 9, and it fell further the next morning, according to FreightWaves.
The Wall Street Journal reported that higher fuel surcharges were also feeding into ocean and air freight costs, adding pressure on retailers and manufacturers already dealing with tariffs.
What it means for drivers and fleets
Fuel surcharge programs tied to the weekly EIA average adjust as the benchmark moves, so fleets with those clauses in their contracts have a mechanism to pass along at least part of the increase. The bigger exposure was for owner-operators and small carriers hauling spot freight or flat-rate loads with no surcharge, who had to absorb a near-dollar-a-gallon increase at the pump from one week to the next.
Practical steps included checking that every contract and broker rate confirmation spelled out how fuel is handled, quoting spot loads with current fuel costs built in, and watching idle time and highway speed, which have a direct effect on fuel burn. Carriers with fuel cards or discount networks also had more reason to route fuel stops through them as prices moved this quickly.