Diesel prices are down for the sixth straight week, reports EIA

The price of diesel gasoline keeps heading down. That was made clear once again, with the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) reporting this week that the average price per gallon of diesel gasoline fell for the sixth straight week.

The average price per gallon of diesel dropped 2.6 cents to $3.892 per gallon, which is the steepest weekly decline in more than a year, since it fell 3.6 cents to $3.851 per gallon the week of April 29, 2013.

Weekly declines in the five previous weeks were 0.7 cents, 0.9 cents, 1.4 cents, 1.6 cents, and 1.1 cents respectively.

The average price per gallon of diesel is up 4.3 cents annually and down 1.8 cents since January 6 on a year-to-date basis. The average price per gallon has fallen in 12 of the past 15 weeks and is 12.9 cents below the 2014 year-to-date high of $4.021 reached during the week of March 10.

As LM has reported, with prices continuing to hover around the $4 per gallon mark adjusting budgets is only part of the solution when it comes to dealing—and living—with fuel price fluctuation, according to shippers.

In some cases they look for hedge diesel prices when it is applicable, shippers have told LM. This involves committing to a certain price on fuel at which pay to a certain rate at which point it is frozen at that rate for the shipper. And it also requires shippers to be focused on keeping their drivers on the road as much they can and being profitable and
not in detention.

Other steps being taken by shippers to combat high fuel prices include things like focusing more on utilization and efficiency by doing things like driving empty miles out of transportation networks.