ATLANTA — More than four in five trucking organisations say their operating costs rose over the past 12 months, and fuel is the cause they name most often, according to new survey research released on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, by Geotab, the connected-operations and telematics company. The research, conducted by Endeavor Business Intelligence on Geotab's behalf, found 82% of respondents reporting higher operating costs, with fuel costs the most frequently cited theme, named in 31% of responses.
Source: PR Newswire / Geotab
The survey lands in the same week as the federal fuel numbers that explain the pressure: the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported on-highway diesel averaging $6.35 a gallon for the week of October 26, 2026 — 71% higher than a year earlier, as the Geotab release notes, and $6.352 in the EIA's precise weekly figure reported by FleetOwner. For an industry that runs on diesel, a price move of that size does not stay at the pump: it works through every load, every contract and every owner-operator's settlement sheet.
What the survey actually measured
The headline figures are shares of respondents, not audited accounts: 82% said their organisation's operating costs had increased over the past 12 months, and when respondents described the cause, fuel was the theme named most often, in 31% of responses. That distinction matters — the survey measures how widespread the squeeze feels across fleets, large and small, rather than putting a single dollar figure on it. Secondary coverage of the same release, including the American Journal of Transportation's summary, carried the same 82% and 31% figures.
Source: WiseVoter (AJOT summary)
Where the fuel goes: idling and fraud
The release points to two places fleets are told to look first. One is waste: coverage of the survey cited an average of 1 hour and 25 minutes of daily idling per commercial vehicle, with the highest-idling vehicles — the top 10% — burning more than 2 gallons of fuel a day while standing still. At $6.35 a gallon, that is real money evaporating in parking lots and loading docks, and it is the reason fleets are using telematics to track idling, fuel economy and consumption vehicle by vehicle.
The other is fraud. Geotab argues that preventing fraudulent fuel purchases requires joining two kinds of data — what the vehicle reports and what the fuel card transacts — so a purchase can be checked against the truck's live location and tank capacity before it clears. 'High fuel prices put pressure on operating budgets, so fleet managers need a clear view of where and how fuel is being used, along with safeguards to help prevent fraudulent purchases,' said Steven Berube, Vice President at Geotab, in the release. Geotab is selling the tools it describes, and readers should weigh the survey as industry research from an interested company — but the EIA diesel figure it rests on is the federal government's own.
Background: why diesel at $6.35 hits trucking differently
Diesel is not one cost among many for trucking; for many fleets and almost all owner-operators it is the largest variable cost of a trip, ahead of tolls and, on a per-load basis, rivalled only by the driver. Fuel surcharges in freight contracts are designed to pass pump prices through to shippers, but they lag — a surcharge table updated weekly cannot fully catch a price that has risen 71% in a year, and smaller carriers and independent drivers, who often buy fuel at retail and negotiate loads load-by-load, feel the gap first and hardest. That is the context in which a survey finding that 82% of organisations report rising costs should be read: it is a breadth measure of a squeeze whose fuel component is independently documented by the EIA.
What it means for Punjabi truckers and owner-operators
A large share of Awaaz Punjab's readers in the United States drive, dispatch or own trucks — on I-5 and I-99 in California's Central Valley, I-80 across the Midwest, and the Texas and New Jersey corridors. For an owner-operator, the arithmetic in this survey is personal: fuel named first among rising costs, idling burning more than 2 gallons a day in the worst tenth of trucks, and card fraud a live risk at unfamiliar stops. The practical steps the industry is pushing — tracking idling, planning fuel stops against live prices, and reconciling every card transaction against the truck's location — are aimed squarely at drivers in that position, whether they run one truck or fifty.
The 82% and 31% figures come from a survey conducted by Endeavor Business Intelligence for Geotab, a company that sells fleet-tracking and fuel-management products. The release did not, in the coverage available at publication, state a sample size. Treat the percentages as a measure of how fleets say they feel, and the $6.35 diesel average — from the federal EIA — as the hard number underneath them.
What happens next
No regulator acts on a survey, and none is asked to here. What happens next is commercial: fleets heading into winter freight and 2027 contract talks will price the diesel level the EIA is reporting — the national average rose to $6.352 in the October 26 survey week, its second straight weekly increase in industry tracking — into bids, surcharges and hiring. If diesel holds near these levels, the cost pressure the survey describes becomes a freight-rate story, and then a shelf-price story, in the months ahead. Awaaz Punjab's trucking coverage will follow the EIA's weekly diesel releases, which are published every Monday.