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Diesel Prices Soar 8.8 cents,  Reprint permission
If the trucking industry consumes about 650 million gallons of diesel fuel in a week, then an extra $57.2 million went into the tank last week. In the fifth straight weekly record, the average price of diesel fuel jumped 8.8 cents last week to $2.18, according to the Department of Energy. The price was a record and it showed little sign of receding as the price of oil hovered around $55 a barrel. For truckers and the shippers who are paying escalating fuel surcharges, the price marked a 45 percent increase over diesel prices at the start of the year and nearly 17 percent higher than the price only six weeks earlier. The increase was the single largest jump since the average price rose 10 cents Sept. 27. The Midwest showed the sharpest increase, with 10.6 cents on average added at the pump. Analysts said the sharp increases present a problem for truckers because of the gap between the price hikes and the time it takes them to implement the surcharges. But, said one industry analyst, a similarly sharp decline could bring a windfall to the truckers. No one is predicting a decline anytime soon, however. Oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was decimated by the September hurricanes and stocks of home heating oil are at historically low levels heading into a projected cold winter. Heating oil comes from the same source as diesel fuel. The hefty increases are starting to seep into the consumer world. The average retail price for gasoline rose 4.2 cents to $2.035 per gallon and the core inflation rate, stripping out food and energy prices, edged up a higher-than-expected 0.3 percent in September. Analysts say that is significant because the recent increase in oil prices didn't figure in the September report, which showed a 0.4 percent decline in energy prices.
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