Diesel just crossed $6.29 per gallon nationally. For the first time in history.That&#x27;s not a headline to scroll past. That&#x27;s a number that should stop every owner-operator and small carrier in this industry dead in their tracks and force them to look at their actual cost structure right now — today — before they take another load. Because most of them haven&#x27;t. This episode is a solo. No guest. Just me, the data, and the math that too many carriers are avoiding because they don&#x27;t want to know what it says.We&#x27;re going to talk about where diesel is, how we got here, where it might go, and — most importantly — how to calculate what this fuel environment is actually costing you per mile, per load, and per month. Because the difference between a carrier who survives this and one who doesn&#x27;t isn&#x27;t which loads they take. It&#x27;s whether they know their real numbers. ⁠Follow The Long Haul Podcast⁠ ⁠Other FreightWaves Shows⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Fuel Crisis Is Here. Do You Know What It's Actually Costing You? | The Long Haul

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So I want to give you a number, $6.29. That's what a gallon of diesel fuel costs nationally as of September 16, 2026. And that's not California. That's not the West Coast. That's the national average.

California has already passed $8 a gallon. And then six months ago, diesel was just sitting at $3.72. That's just six months ago. So that means in less than half a year, every carrier in this country has watched their single largest operating cost increase by nearly 70%.

And the reason it happened, so you look at the U.S.-Iran conflict that closed the Strait of Hormuz that took roughly 14 million barrels a gallon of oil per day off of the global market. It doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon. So I'm doing this episode solo today because this isn't a guest conversation. This is, I'm just talking to the carriers out there and that's this type of conversation.

If you're running trucks right now and you haven't sat down and recalculated what this fuel environment is actually costing you per mile, per load, per month, this episode is going to be for you. So let's get on into it. If you run your business on guest work, you're putting yourself in a bad position before the wheels even turn. And right now, more than ever, who you align your business with matters.

The Fuel Crisis Is Here. Do You Know What It's Actually Costing You? | The Long Haul

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.

The Fuel Crisis Is Here. Do You Know What It's Actually Costing You? | The Long Haul

Read the full transcript

The candid version is on a podcast, not the earnings call.

The candid version is on a podcast,
not the earnings call.