KC diesel costs 70% more than last year
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Kansas City diesel prices hit record highs this fall and haven't come down much since, staying about 70% above last year.
Why it matters: Fuel costs hurt KC wallets twice, at the pump and in the price of everything trucks haul and farms grow.
Catch up quick: Fuel prices started climbing after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran in early March.
Zoom in: Diesel reached record highs on both sides of the metro in late September, topping $6.25 a gallon.
- It has since dipped to just under $6, still about 70% higher than a year ago.
- High diesel prices have already driven up costs for local farms, and those costs are expected to reach grocery shelves.
What they're saying: Small trucking companies "are the first to feel it when prices jump," Lewie Pugh, executive vice president of the Grain Valley-based Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, said in a statement to Axios.
- "Every $1 increase per gallon in fuel costs our members around $400 more per week, and sustained high prices will put many truck drivers out of business," Pugh said.
- Owner-operators often "can't simply raise their rates when fuel spikes the way their larger competitors can," he added.
Zoom out: Regular gas averaged around $3.81 a gallon on both sides of the state line Thursday, up from about $2.75 a year ago, according to AAA.
- Prices have eased lately, down about 30 cents from a month ago. That's nearly 30 cents below the national average. It's also about 80 to 90 cents below the records set on each side of the metro in June 2022.
- Regular gas in the Midwest region was up nearly 50% from a year earlier as of Oct. 26, according to Pew Research Center's analysis of federal data. Only the Rocky Mountain region saw a bigger jump.
Flashback: Adjusted for inflation, gas has been far more expensive. A gallon of regular averaged about $6.18 nationally in June 2008 in today's dollars, compared with about $4.14 last month.
- The typical American worker needed about 9.5 minutes of pay to buy a gallon of regular in October, up from about six minutes in February, according to Pew.
- That's still well below the 16 minutes it took in July 2008.
The bottom line: Gas has been more expensive before, but record diesel prices this fall are putting extra pressure on consumers and businesses.