WASHINGTON — The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on Tuesday, November 10, that the national average price of on-highway diesel fell to $6.127 a gallon in the week of November 9, down 16.5 cents from $6.292 the week before. Regular gasoline fell further and faster, dropping 15.8 cents to $3.995 a gallon — below the $4 line for the first time in this autumn slide.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update

It is the third straight weekly fall in the EIA survey. Diesel averaged $6.352 in the week of October 26 and $6.292 in the week of November 2 before this week's drop, continuing a slide from the record $6.529 a gallon set in the week of September 21 — the highest reading in the EIA's weekly series. Gasoline has fallen from $4.269 to $4.153 to $3.995 over the same three weeks.

What drivers pay, region by region

The EIA's regional table for the week of November 9 shows the Gulf Coast remained the cheapest diesel market in the country at $5.741 a gallon, followed by the East Coast average of $5.920 and the Lower Atlantic at $5.694. The Midwest averaged $6.201 after the week's biggest regional fall of 20.1 cents, New England $6.349 and the Central Atlantic $6.412. At the expensive end, the West Coast averaged $7.110, the West Coast outside California $6.429, and California itself $7.897 — down 17.9 cents on the week, but still $1.77 a gallon above the national average.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, weekly retail price tables

Measured against a year ago, the relief is real but partial. Diesel is still $2.290 a gallon more expensive than in the same week last year, when it averaged about $3.84, and gasoline is 93.9 cents above its year-ago level. The gap between the two fuels has also stretched sharply: diesel cost $2.132 a gallon more than regular gasoline this week, against a gap of just $0.781 a year earlier, according to the EIA tables.

What it means at the pump for truckers

For the Punjabi owner-operators and fleet drivers who run America's freight corridors, the weekly EIA number is not an abstraction — it is the benchmark many carriers use to reset their fuel-surcharge tables each week. A simple calculation from the EIA averages shows what the fall means in practice: filling a 200-gallon pair of tanks at the national average now costs about $1,225, against about $1,258 last week and about $767 a year ago. In California, the same fill costs about $1,579.

The wider freight market is not easing with the fuel price. The October Logistics Managers' Index, published November 3, put transportation prices at 88 and transportation capacity at 38 — a combination its surveyors read as high prices and tight capacity — and trade reporting has major truckload carriers seeking at least double-digit rate increases in the annual contract talks that have just begun.

Source: Forwarder News, US truck prices, inventories and diesel: early November 2026

What happens next

The EIA's next weekly gasoline and diesel update is listed for November 17. Daily surveys already point the same way: AAA's national averages on Tuesday morning put diesel at about $6.16 a gallon and regular gasoline at about $3.98, according to Energy News Beat's Tuesday roundup — a separate survey from the EIA's, but moving in the same direction. The test for drivers comes with the Thanksgiving holiday freight rush: if diesel keeps sliding through November, the EIA's own earlier expectation was that it would stay above $6 a gallon through the end of the month, and this week's $6.127 print keeps it just above that line.

For readers in the Central Valley, the Inland Empire, Houston, Chicago and the other freight hubs where Punjabi trucking families are concentrated, the number that matters most remains California's: at $7.897, a gallon of California diesel still costs more than a gallon did anywhere else in the EIA table — and every cent of the national slide reaches California last and smallest.