INDIANAPOLIS — As diesel fuel prices surge past $5 a gallon nationwide, Hoosiers are bracing for higher prices at the grocery store.
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On Wednesday, the average price of diesel fuel in Indiana is $5.17 a gallon, which is nearly $1 a gallon more than regular gas. This increase is directly impacting the trucking companies responsible for moving goods across the country.
Spot Freight, one of the nation's largest third-party logistics companies, has two offices in Indianapolis and four across the country.
"We work between the companies that need to ship product and the trucking companies that do the actual transportation," Andrew Krop said. "We do a lot of work in the food and grocery space, in the beverage and bottling space," Krop said.
Krop pointed out that California hit $7 a gallon on Wednesday.
"Which is a record. We've never seen diesel prices that high in the history of the US," Krop said. "It's been a tremendous impact on the trucking companies, so fuel is a considerable cost in their overall cost to operate. About 20% or so of the operating cost is in the fuel," Krop said.
As a result, freight rates are going up, which increases the cost of moving goods from point A to point B.
"Yes, we see the impact on that cost of the transportation, the amount that it costs to move goods across the country, in particular on the food side," Krop said.
Michael Negron, a senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, a non-partisan policy institute focused on affordability, says increased prices at the store will soon follow.
"The food that's on the shelves right now that's the product of contracts that were largely done prior to this war. We'll start to see logistics companies adding these fuel surcharges," Negron said.
"Hopefully, if this war ends in the next few weeks, then that'll be a momentary spike, and then we can hopefully get inflation back down. But, either way, right now, we're seeing prices go one direction, and that's up," Negron said.
Krop said higher fuel costs do not just show up at the pump or the checkout counter; they also change how Americans spend.
"So as consumers are paying more to put fuel in their vehicles, that's going to limit the dollars they have for groceries — or even those discretionary purchases," Krop said.
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