Pump prices didn't spike overnight — they crept. And that's the kind of move that's easy to miss until the fuel card statement lands.
According to EIA weekly data, the US average retail gasoline price hit $4.211/gallon as of August 3, up from $3.911/gallon on July 6 — a 7.7% climb in exactly four weeks. It ticked down slightly from the July 27 reading of $4.228, but the month-over-month direction is unmistakable.
This matters more for last-mile fleets than the headline number suggests, because most DSP vans run on gasoline, not diesel. The Ram ProMaster 2500 and Ford Transit 350 — the two most common vans in DSP fleets — post EPA ratings around 18 and 19 mpg respectively. At 18 mpg, the July 6 price worked out to roughly $0.217 per mile in fuel cost. At today's $4.211, that's climbed to about $0.234 per mile — a difference of $0.017.
That sounds small until it's multiplied. A van running 80 route miles a day picks up an extra $1.36 in fuel cost daily, or roughly $28 a month at 20 driving days. Scale that across a 40-van fleet and the four-week gasoline climb alone adds close to $1,120 a month in fuel spend — before accounting for idle time, detours, or traffic.
None of this shows up on a P&L until the invoice hits, which is exactly why operators get blindsided by fuel line variance they didn't budget for. The four-week trend has been up every week but one. Whether it keeps climbing into peak season is the question worth watching heading into fall route planning.
See how this affects your cost per stop — free calculator at pexara.ai/calculator