AAA Daily Fuel Gauge Report for Friday, 4/21/23

National Average Price for Regular Unleaded Current: $3.189; Month Ago: $3.134; Year Ago: $2.182. National Average Price for Diesel Current: $3.294; Month Ago: $3.250; Year Ago: $2.428.

A leading, nationwide trucking company told the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today that cargo theft is a crisis impacting the entire supply chain that requires immediate action from Congress. Donna Lemm, chief strategy officer for IMC Logistics, testified on behalf of the American Trucking Associations in support of the Combatting Organized Retail Crime Act, which would establish a coordinated multi-agency response and equip law enforcement with new resources to address a surge of cargo theft incidents happening across the country. “Rising cargo theft is affecting the trucking industry across the United States.  We cannot stay silent,” said Lemm.

“The frustratingly choppy freight environment continued in November,” said ATA Chief Economist Bob Costello. “Since hitting a low in January of this year, tonnage is up a total of 1.1%, but the path has been fraught with nice gains one month only to come back down the next. The good news is that the overall trend this year is up, albeit at a slow rate.” In November, the ATA advanced seasonally adjusted For-Hire Truck Tonnage Index equaled 112.5 compared with 114.6 in October. The index, which is based on 2015 as 100, was down 1% from the same month last year. The not seasonally adjusted index, which calculates raw changes in tonnage hauled, equaled 109.6 in November, 9.6% below October. The seasonally adjusted decrease follows a sequential 1.2% gain in October, which was unchanged from the November 19 press release.