EIA New Methodology for Calculating & Reporting On-Highway Diesel Rates May Cause Headaches for Carrier Fuel Surcharge Planning

Everyone in our industry and beyond, the actual consumers, have been worried and watching fuel prices. All the major carriers rely on EIA data updates to adjust their fuel surcharges biweekly. Unfortunately, the EIA has been pushing its weekly data release since 6.13.22, and they've done it again this week. We're now 3 weeks without the data for on-highway diesel rack prices, and that means the carriers that rely on that data are throwing fact-based surcharges to the wind with a best guess.

Even other third-party sources on fuel data are stuck without the data release from EIA. This may become the main storyline of disruption for July, inability to gauge fuel surcharge changes as the month roll along, especially if the EIA doesn't get its new methodology together.

Possible Outcomes:

• Carriers retroactively assess fuel surcharges based on data that's older when and if it is released.
• Carriers assume a higher fuel surcharge based on the trends thus far prior with a promise to adjust future invoices down if inaccurate.
• Carriers just assess a higher fuel surcharge and provide no means of recourse.Long-term impacts:
• More demand for courier networks, electric vehicles?
• Reduced reliance on diesel trucks?
• Inability to trust that the EIA, which has tracked this weekly since the 90s, will maintain its reliability going forward.

What is your organization doing to be ready for changing surcharges as this new methodology hangs out in the rafters at the EIA?