Diesel desk
The number behind the fuel line.
Freight contracts do not use the price painted on a single truck stop. They use a weekly U.S. average from the Energy Information Administration. Here is the latest published reading, what it replaced, and how a surcharge is built from it.
Latest weekly average
$6.529
Week of September 21, 2026
Versus prior week
+$0.244
Was $6.285 on September 14
Versus a year ago
+$2.780
Was $3.749
Eight weeks, one direction
EIA weekly U.S. on-highway diesel. August 3 through September 21, 2026. No estimated weeks.
Same week, by region
California is not the national average. The Gulf Coast is not California. A contract that says “DOE” almost always means the U.S. line, unless it names a region.
| Region | $/gal | Week | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 6.529 | +0.244 | +2.780 |
| East Coast | 6.268 | +0.110 | +2.523 |
| New England | 6.517 | +0.315 | +2.555 |
| Central Atlantic | 6.546 | +0.234 | +2.638 |
| Lower Atlantic | 6.139 | +0.043 | +2.475 |
| Midwest | 6.680 | +0.430 | +2.949 |
| Gulf Coast | 6.177 | +0.150 | +2.777 |
| Rocky Mountain | 6.340 | +0.274 | +2.593 |
| West Coast | 7.456 | +0.206 | +2.932 |
| West Coast less California | 6.791 | +0.225 | +2.668 |
| California | 8.246 | +0.207 | +3.261 |
U.S. Energy Information Administration, weekly retail on-highway diesel, week of September 21, 2026. The next weekly release was scheduled for September 29, 2026. A daily pump average (such as AAA) is a different survey and will not match this number.
What a surcharge is doing
A different daily survey, such as AAA, can print another national average on the same morning. That does not mean one of them is fake. They sample different stations on different clocks. If a contract names the DOE or EIA weekly index, use this page, not a pump photo.
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