If you’ve received a quote to ship a vehicle recently, you may have noticed that fuel costs—or a fuel surcharge—can play an important role in the final price.
That’s not surprising. Diesel fuel is one of the largest operating expenses in the trucking industry, and when diesel prices rise, the cost of moving vehicles across the country rises with them.
So, what’s happening with diesel fuel right now, and how does it affect the price of shipping your car?
Diesel Prices Are Back in the Spotlight
Diesel prices have climbed significantly in 2026.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average price of on-highway diesel fuel in the United States was $5.257 per gallon as of August 10, 2026. That’s roughly $1.50 per gallon higher than the same period a year earlier.
Depending on where a carrier is operating, the cost can be even higher. During the same week, average diesel prices were more than $5.50 per gallon in New England and more than $6.00 per gallon on the West Coast.
For an individual driver filling up a passenger vehicle, a dollar or two per gallon makes a difference. For an auto transport carrier operating a large diesel truck and traveling thousands of miles every week, it can make an enormous difference.
Why Are Diesel Prices So Important to Auto Transport?
Auto transport is an extremely fuel-intensive business.
A carrier transporting multiple vehicles may travel hundreds or thousands of miles to complete a route. The truck itself is heavy, and once several cars, SUVs or pickup trucks are loaded onto the trailer, the total weight can be substantial.
That means fuel consumption is a major part of the carrier’s operating costs.
Consider what happens when diesel increases by $1.00 per gallon. A truck purchasing hundreds of gallons over the course of a long-distance trip can suddenly face hundreds of dollars in additional fuel expense.
Multiply that across weeks and months of driving, and fluctuating diesel prices become something carriers simply can’t ignore.
What Is a Fuel Surcharge?
A fuel surcharge is a charge designed to help transportation companies account for changes in fuel costs without continually rebuilding their underlying transportation rates.
There isn’t one universal government-mandated fuel surcharge.
The EIA publishes weekly diesel fuel price information that is widely used throughout the transportation industry, but the EIA itself does not establish or regulate fuel surcharges. Individual transportation companies may use different formulas, benchmarks and methods.
The basic concept, however, is simple:
When diesel costs increase significantly, the cost of transporting freight—including automobiles—increases as well.
A fuel surcharge helps carriers adjust to those changing costs.
Why Not Just Build Fuel Into the Regular Price?
Fuel is already part of the cost of transportation. The problem is that fuel prices can change much faster than many other business expenses.
A carrier might calculate rates when diesel is $4.00 per gallon only to find itself paying $5.00 or more shortly afterward.
Fuel surcharges allow transportation pricing to respond to those changes without treating every movement in diesel prices as a permanent increase in the carrier’s base rate.
That can work in the customer’s favor as well. If fuel prices decline, a properly structured fuel adjustment can reflect lower fuel costs rather than locking unusually high fuel expenses permanently into transportation rates.
What’s Driving Diesel Prices?
Diesel prices are affected by much more than what’s happening at your local gas station.
Crude oil prices, global supply and demand, refinery capacity and utilization, inventories, transportation and distribution expenses, taxes, seasonal demand and geopolitical events can all influence the price paid at the pump.
That’s why diesel can sometimes move differently from regular gasoline.
For the auto transport industry, these aren’t abstract economic statistics. They affect the cost of virtually every mile traveled.
Fuel Is Only One Factor in Your Auto Transport Quote
While diesel prices are important, they aren’t the only thing determining how much it costs to ship a vehicle.
- Pickup and delivery locations
- Distance traveled
- Open versus enclosed transport
- Vehicle size and weight
- Seasonal demand
- Carrier availability
- Route popularity
- Pickup and delivery flexibility
- Current market conditions
This is why two vehicles traveling approximately the same distance don’t necessarily cost exactly the same amount to ship.
Why Extremely Low Auto Transport Quotes Deserve a Second Look
When fuel and operating costs are rising, an unusually inexpensive shipping quote should get your attention.
A quote isn’t valuable if no qualified carrier is willing to accept the vehicle at that rate.
Professional auto transport pricing needs to reflect real-world conditions, including what carriers are actually paying for diesel.
At USA Auto Movers, our goal is to provide customers with realistic transportation options based on current market conditions—not simply advertise an artificially low number to get someone on the phone.
Planning to Ship a Vehicle? Look at the Total Picture
Nobody can predict exactly where diesel prices will be several months from now. Energy markets can change quickly, sometimes because of events thousands of miles away.
What we do know is that fuel remains one of the biggest expenses associated with moving vehicles around the country.
When diesel prices rise, transportation costs feel the impact. Understanding fuel surcharges and the factors behind them can help you better understand your auto transport quote—and why rates may change as market conditions change.
If you’re planning to ship a car, truck, SUV or other vehicle, contact USA Auto Movers for a current auto transport quote based on today’s routes, carrier availability and market conditions.
The cheapest number isn’t always the best quote. A realistic price from an experienced auto transport company can help get your vehicle picked up and delivered safely, reliably and without unpleasant surprises.