PHOENIX — Diesel prices have climbed above an average of $6 a gallon in Arizona according to AAA, putting new financial pressure on truck drivers, business owners and consumers.
Almost everything people purchase spends time on a truck. As the cost of fueling those trucks increases, those expenses can ripple through the supply chain and ultimately affect the prices customers pay.
At a Love’s Travel Stop off I-10, diesel was selling for well over $6 a gallon. Because many semi-trucks carry more than 100 gallons of fuel, a single stop can now come with a four-figure price tag.
“It’s crazy,” Arizona truck driver Daniel Wood said. “There’s a Facebook group for my company, and one of our drivers shared a photo where a fill-up was more than $1,000.”
Wood said the higher prices are cutting into trucking companies’ bottom lines and reducing how much drivers can ultimately earn.
“Whether you’re a company driver or an owner-operator, it’s impacting you,” Wood said. “It’s impacting what your company can pay you, and if you’re an owner-operator, it’s impacting what you pay yourself.”
The added cost does not stop with the driver. Businesses may pass higher transportation expenses along through the prices of the goods being carried.
Food-truck owners have been squeezed from both directions, paying more for ingredients that must be transported to stores and suppliers, while also spending more to move their own vehicles from one location to another.
“Everything on that burger has to be separately bought, separately transported to the place I buy it,” said Shelly Heisner, owner of the Diner on Wheels food truck. “So it’s just like fuel, fuel, fuel. Everything on this burger is about fuel.”
Truckers and business owners have been feeling the pressure since fuel prices began climbing this spring following the first U.S. strikes on Iran. They are now caught between the rising cost of staying in business and what their customers can afford to pay.
Wood said he hopes prices will come down but is not optimistic that relief will arrive soon.
“We’re out here working every day, not seeing that the government is doing anything about it,” Wood said. “And it’s sad because it’s affecting a lot of lives. Every driver out here, they’re not here because they love it. They’re here to make money.”
Arizona has not quite returned to its record-high diesel price. The state record, just over $6.20 a gallon, was set in April.
