Truckers warn high diesel prices are squeezing routes and supply chain

U.S. truckers are warning that sky-high diesel prices are eating into their profits and are putting pressure on trucking companies to cut routes, raising fears that some drivers could be forced off the road and the pain could eventually reach Americans at the grocery store.

“Fuel prices are going up, tariffs are not going up,” Suave Dorsett, a Miami-based trucker, told Fox News Digital. “So it really hurts our pockets.”

The warnings come as the war in Iran sends diesel prices skyrocketing, putting a strain on U.S. truckers, even as President Donald Trump predicts oil prices will drop “like a stone” in anticipation of an end to the conflict soon. Drivers told Fox News Digital that the damage is already piling up, with routes cut and smaller operators facing increasing financial pressure.

Dorsett is among several truckers who told Fox News Digital that soaring fuel costs are cutting into their revenues and putting pressure on an industry responsible for moving goods across the country, with one driver reporting fewer routes and others warning that smaller operators could eventually be forced to park their rigs.

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Fox News Digital tells truckers how diesel prices impact them. (Fox News Digital)

The national average for diesel stood at about $6.32 a gallon Monday, according to AAA, up from about $3.69 at the same time last year, a jump of more than 70 percent. The rise also eclipsed the previous record of $5.816 per gallon, set in June 2022 under former President Joe Biden, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent global energy prices soaring.

For Dorsett, who has been driving for nine years, the price at the pump was even higher. He told Fox News Digital he was seeing diesel for $7.40 a gallon while traveling through Ohio.

Dorsett said the fuel level hike comes as truckers already face a long list of expenses, including diesel exhaust fluid (DEF), which helps reduce harmful emissions, parking, showers, weighing and reweighing loads, repairs and towing.

And if diesel prices remain high, Dorsett predicts that smaller operators will be the first to give in.

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President Trump in a garbage truck and trucks sitting in a parking lot. Trump asked the Department of Transportation to enforce language proficiency standards. (Getty Images)

“Some of the smaller businesses, like the smaller proprietary companies, would slowly fall and that would create a chain effect,” Dorsett said, predicting a “domino effect” that could eventually put pressure on the larger carriers.

Tyler Rinaldi, a Louisiana trucker with about a decade of experience hauling hazardous materials and other cargo for an LTL company, said he’s already seen weekend routes cut at his company.

“I saw a lot of roads cut,” Rinaldi told Fox News Digital. “They’re not really racing the way they want to on the weekends right now.”

“I’m definitely seeing a lot of change because of this in my business, slowly, but it’s starting to be more visible,” he added.

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While gasoline prices have largely stabilized, diesel costs have reached record levels, threatening to ripple across the entire economy. (Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images)

Rinaldi, married with two children, said fewer routes could eventually mean less money to get home.

“When they start cutting routes and trying to limit spending on the routes they send out,” Rinaldi said, “it takes away people who are working in the pockets of the company.”

Avante Jackson, an 11-year trucking veteran from Charlotte, North Carolina, who hauls steel and other construction materials, said rising diesel prices are forcing truckers to look more carefully at whether the money they’re bringing in is enough to keep their businesses running.

“If I put all my profits in the tank,” Jackson said, “at the end of the day, what do I have left to keep the doors open?”

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A tractor-trailer refuels with diesel fuel at a Kwik Star gas station in Mitchellville, Iowa, U.S., Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bryon Houlgrave/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Jackson warned against “scaremongering” about potential shortages, but said a widespread loss of drivers could ultimately hit consumers.

“It could really hit the community,” he said.

Diesel’s latest surge echoes a similar crisis in 2022 under former President Joe Biden, when the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent fuel prices skyrocketing. Diesel hit a then-record national average of $5.82 a gallon in June, squeezing truckers as operating expenses rose.

According to the American Transportation Research Institute, truck fuel costs jumped 53.7% in 2022, contributing to a 21.3% increase in overall operating costs to a then-record high of $2.25 per mile. The latest spike threatens to reignite these pressures, particularly for smaller operators who have less room to absorb rising fuel bills.

As the Trump administration pushes its international partners to release emergency fuel supplies in an effort to lower prices, truckers had their own message for the president: Remember, drivers absorb the costs of the road.

“My message to President Trump would be to just think about who moves America forward,” Jackson told Fox News Digital. “Think of the little guys here every day.”

Trump just struck a deal with the country atop the world’s largest oil reserves.

“We are truly the backbone of America, we keep it moving,” he added. “We just want you to think about us and put yourself in our shoes…Let’s try to get fuel prices down and let’s just try to make more changes,” he said. “We know we can do better.”

Trump on Thursday defended the fuel price hike as a temporary sacrifice in the fight to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, saying on Truth Social that the gasoline price hike was “a small price to pay for Iran not having nuclear weapons.”

Trump said last week that European countries had agreed to release diesel from their stockpiles after pressing them to put more on the market. The G7 then agreed to release 100 million barrels of oil and petroleum products from previously promised emergency reserves over four months, including a substantial release of diesel in the first 20 days, in a bid to ease pressure on global fuel markets.

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Trump also said his administration would not pursue a ban on diesel exports and expressed confidence that oil prices would eventually return to levels seen before the latest hike, even as energy markets remain under pressure from global supply disruptions.

Trump predicted at a rally Wednesday night in San Antonio, Texas, that oil prices would “drop like a rock” once the war with Iran ends, insisting the conflict would end “very soon.”

“This week, President Trump signed an executive order that will quickly reduce diesel costs and put money directly into the pockets of American truckers, saving them more than $100 every time they fill up at the pump. Last week, he negotiated a deal with our European counterparts to release 100 million barrels – mostly diesel – from their inventories to increase market supply and reduce costs,” the House press secretary said. Blanche, Taylor Rogers, at Fox News Digital.

“The President wants to see pump prices lower and continues to take historic steps to ease temporary disruptions as oil flowing through the Strait of Hormuz approaches pre-conflict levels,” Rogers added.