Your coffee, your couch, your phone. At some point, nearly all of it rode on a diesel engine.

Gasoline gets the headlines, but diesel does the work. Diesel and heating oil account for 19% of the petroleum Americans use, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA). Diesel moves our food, builds our roads, and keeps hospitals running when the power goes out. Its refining cousin, jet fuel, even helps set the price of your next flight.

Most people never think about diesel. But when its price jumps, everyone feels it.

Key takeaways

  1. Diesel moves America’s goods. Trucks carry nearly three of every four tons of U.S. freight (72.7% in 2024, per the American Trucking Associations), and most of them run on diesel, along with freight trains, barges, and farm equipment.
  2. Diesel keeps essential services running. It powers most U.S. construction equipment, most of the nation’s roughly 490,000 school buses, backup generators at hospitals, and military vehicles, and it heats homes across the Northeast.
  3. Diesel prices hit everyone’s wallet. Diesel hit a record $6.31 a gallon in September 2026, according to CNBC. Those costs flow into grocery prices through freight surcharges, and because jet fuel comes from the same part of the barrel, into airfares too.

How does diesel move America’s goods and food?

  • Most trucks burn diesel. Most freight and delivery trucks have diesel engines, and transportation accounts for about 75% of U.S. diesel use, according to EIA.
  • Trains and barges fill the gaps. Railroads moved about a tenth of freight tonnage in 2024 (10.6%), according to the American Trucking Associations. Diesel engines in trucks, trains, boats and barges move nearly all the products people consume, according to EIA.
  • Farms run on diesel. Diesel powers most U.S. farm equipment, from tractors to combines, according to Reuters.
  • Diesel keeps food cold, too. Refrigerated trucks keep milk, meat, and produce fresh from farm to store.
  • In short: no diesel, no full shelves.

What else runs on diesel? 

  • Builders run on diesel. Diesel powers most U.S. construction equipment: machines that lift steel, dig foundations, and pave roads.
  • The school bus is often a diesel bus. About 20 million children ride roughly 490,000 school buses every day, and the vast majority run on diesel, according to Yale Environment 360.
  • When the grid fails, diesel doesn’t. Hospitals, large buildings, industrial sites, and utilities keep diesel generators for backup power. Some remote villages in Alaska run on diesel full-time.
  • Diesel’s close cousin heats the Northeast. Heating oil, a form of diesel, is the main heating fuel for 3% of U.S. households, and more than 80% of those homes are in the Northeast, according to EIA’s 2025-2026 Winter Fuels Outlook.
  • The military runs on diesel. Tanks and trucks use diesel because it is less flammable and less explosive than other fuels.

How do diesel prices affect what you pay?


 

View U.S. Diesel Price Data

U.S. Average On-Highway Diesel Price, Annual Average

Year Price per gallon
2005 $2.40
2006 $2.71
2007 $2.89
2008 $3.80
2009 $2.47
2010 $2.99
2011 $3.84
2012 $3.97
2013 $3.92
2014 $3.83
2015 $2.71
2016 $2.30
2017 $2.65
2018 $3.18
2019 $3.06
2020 $2.55
2021 $3.29
2022 $4.99
2023 $4.21
2024 $3.76
2025 $3.66
2026 (year to date) $4.84

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, U.S. No. 2 Diesel Retail Prices (annual).


View annual EIA data

2026 figure is the average of EIA’s monthly values for January through August 2026; EIA has not published a 2026 annual average.

Monthly data:

Download EIA monthly diesel price data

 

  • Diesel prices are at a record. Diesel hit an all-time high of $6.31 a gallon in September 2026, according to CNBC, as the war with Iran squeezed fuel supplies.
  • You pay later, not at the pump. Shippers absorb the hit at first, but as freight contracts reprice and fuel surcharges kick in, costs reach the grocery store. Refrigerated foods feel it first.
  • Your plane ticket, too. Jet fuel and diesel are closely related “middle distillates,” so supply pressures often push their prices in the same direction. Jet fuel typically accounts for about one-quarter of airline operating costs, and its price nearly doubled in the early months of the Iran war, according to Reuters.
  • Change is coming, slowly. Electric school buses are spreading with help from a $5 billion EPA program, according to Yale Environment 360. But long-haul trucks remain among the hardest vehicles to electrify, according to the International Energy Agency.

The next time diesel prices spike, you won’t see it at the pump. You’ll see it at the grocery store, on your heating bill, and in your airfare.

Diesel doesn’t get the headlines. But at record prices, you’ll feel it anyway.