Diesel prices up 70.8 percent year over year: the freight cost hiding in your grocery bill

Diesel now costs $6.35 a gallon at the pump, up 70.8 percent from a year ago, and that number is the quiet force pushing your grocery receipt higher even as the headline gasoline price eases. The weekly retail fuel print from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, week ending October 26, 2026, shows diesel at $6.352 a gallon against $3.718 a year earlier. Regular gasoline sits at $4.269, up a still painful 40.7 percent year over year. The gap between the two has widened from $0.68 to $2.08 in twelve months, and that spread is freight. Diesel is the fuel that moves nearly everything a truck carries, and every one of those gallons sits inside the price of what lands on a shelf.

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