Diesel fuel surges over $6 per gallon as prices continue to skyrocket

DECATUR, Ill. (WAND) – The Illinois trucking industry is being hit hard as diesel fuel prices continue to skyrocket. As of Tuesday morning in Decatur, the Pilot station just off Interstate 72 was charging $6.09 per gallon.

“What that means to the average truck operator, you have a 150-gallon tank, what used to cost around $500 to fill up is now $900 to fill up,” according to Matthew Hart, the executive director of the Illinois Trucking Association.

Fuel remains one of the highest operating costs in the industry, only second to labor costs.

“We move 95% of the manufactured freight in Illinois,” Hart told WAND News. “That’s almost everything you wear, everything you buy got transported by truck. When our costs go up, ultimately the cost to consumers goes up.”

Regular gasoline prices in the Decatur area are currently at $4.79 a gallon.