Diesel Just Broke a 2022 Record — Here's What It's Costing Small Businesses

Diesel just broke a record that stood for four years. The national average hit $5.85 a gallon on September 4, topping the $5.816 peak set in June 2022, and it kept climbing from there, touching $5.967 by September 7. If your business runs trucks, vans, tractors, or heavy equipment, you're already paying for it.

The cause is a war half a world away, but the bill is landing on delivery routes, construction sites, and farms across the country.

How Diesel Got This Expensive, This Fast

Diesel has been climbing steadily for weeks, but it surged 17 cents in just two days as the conflict with Iran strained global oil markets. The disruption around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping chokepoint for crude oil, threw the global market into disarray. At the same time, Ukraine's drone campaign against Russian refineries has cut into worldwide diesel refining capacity from the other direction.

Diesel already costs more than gasoline in normal times, because of higher taxes, stricter environmental refining requirements, and a lower yield per barrel of crude. Right now, the diesel crack spread, the price difference between raw crude and the refined product, has hit triple-digit highs that industry analysts describe as unprecedented.

Making matters worse, this is exactly the time of year when diesel inventories usually build up ahead of fall refinery maintenance season. Supply chain researchers are warning that inventories could be unusually low heading into that maintenance window, which means prices have less cushion if anything else goes wrong.

Why Small Businesses Feel It First

Large carriers like FedEx and UPS have already raised their fuel surcharge rates to pass the cost along. Small operators don't have that flexibility. George O'Connor, public affairs director at the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, put it plainly: small business truckers "are the first to feel it when prices jump," because unlike larger competitors, they can't simply raise their rates when fuel spikes. With freight rates already low and independent truckers often working load to load with little negotiating leverage, a sharp increase in diesel can eat up what little margin is left.

It's not just trucking. Diesel is an input to nearly everything a small business moves, builds, or grows. Construction crews, landscaping companies, and delivery services all run on it. Farmers are absorbing a double hit: diesel for equipment and transport, plus higher fertilizer costs that are also being driven up by the war. Harvest season for corn and soybeans, the country's largest farm commodities, is approaching right as diesel costs peak.

What It Means for the Prices You Charge — and Pay

Economists are blunt about where this goes next. Diesel is an input to virtually everything Americans consume, since a massive share of goods travels by truck at some point before reaching a shelf. Higher diesel prices put upward pressure on the cost of goods across the economy, even for businesses that never touch a truck themselves.

That pressure works in both directions for a small business owner: your own supply costs may rise as vendors pass along their higher shipping bills, and if you run delivery or field service routes yourself, your fuel line item is already bigger than it was last month. There's also a broader risk to watch. If these price increases show up in the cost of everyday goods rather than staying contained to gas pumps, it becomes harder for the Federal Reserve to justify cutting interest rates, which matters directly if you're carrying a variable-rate business loan or planning to take one out.

What You Can Actually Do About It

You can't control the war in the Middle East or the refinery math behind the crack spread. But there are moves that are fully within your control this month:

• Add or update a fuel surcharge clause in client contracts. If you run delivery, courier, landscaping, or trade services, a transparent, formula-based surcharge tied to a public fuel index protects your margin without looking arbitrary to customers.
• Separate fuel costs in your books. If diesel is blended into a general "operating expenses" line, you won't see how much of your margin erosion is fuel versus everything else. Breaking it out lets you react faster and make the case for a surcharge or price adjustment with real numbers.
• Check your fuel purchasing options. Fuel cards, bulk purchasing agreements, and locking in prices with a supplier can all reduce exposure to day-to-day volatility, even if they don't eliminate the underlying cost increase.
• Revisit routes and load planning. Fewer, fuller trips matter more when every gallon costs almost $6. Even modest route consolidation can offset a meaningful share of the increase.
• Watch your insurance and equipment budgets too. Rising fuel costs often arrive alongside rising costs elsewhere in a vehicle-heavy operation; it's a reasonable time to check that your coverage still matches what you're actually running.

If you haven't looked at your numbers since diesel was under $5 a gallon, now is the time. Rebuilding your profit and loss statement with fuel broken out as its own line will show you exactly how much of this spike you're absorbing versus passing through, and it's the same document you'll want in hand if you end up negotiating rates with a lender or a major client this fall. If you're relying on a personal vehicle for business use and haven't separated business and personal expenses cleanly, a dedicated business bank account makes it far easier to track fuel spending precisely when every gallon counts.

How Long This Lasts

Nobody is promising relief on a specific date. Analysts tracking the refining picture say both gasoline and diesel prices face continued upward pressure until refining supply improves, and the approaching fall maintenance season adds another point of vulnerability rather than resolving the current shortage. For small business owners running on thin margins, the practical takeaway isn't to wait this out quietly. It's to build the surcharge language, tighten the routing, and separate the fuel line in your books now, so you're not recalculating your margins from scratch every time the price ticks up again.

Photo by Zetong Li on Unsplash