Diesel fuel hit a record high: $6.37 a gallon in Georgia Friday. And even if you don’t use diesel, you’ll feel this in the things you buy.
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Channel 2’s Richard Elliot reports that former Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene says five of the cities seeing the biggest price spikes are here in the peach state.
Taylor-Greene retweeted a list of diesel price spikes week to week: Atlanta, Dalton, Brunswick, Athens and Fort Stewart.
Nationally, diesel is $6.44 a gallon, according to Gasbuddy.com. It’s a little bit lower here in Georgia, but still too high for truck drivers.
Simon Kibunga climbed back into his big rig before heading out on another run, but that run ain’t cheap.
“We are looking at maybe a $1,000 to fill up,” he said.
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You heard right. It costs Kibunga $1,000 every time he fills up his tanks, and it’s the same for other truck drivers across metro Atlanta.
According to gas buddy.com, the average price of diesel in the U.S. is $6.43 a gallon.
Kibunga says he’s reducing his delivery area just to save on gas.
“We travel. We don’t go far, because the more you go, the more diesel you consume.”
Right now there are 55,000 registered carriers across the state of Georgia. That’s the fifth highest amount in the U.S.
Seventy percent of them are owner-operated, just like Kibunga.
The president of the Georgia Truckers Association, himself a working truck driver out on the road, told Elliot over the phone that the high diesel prices are “crushing” smaller carriers and the independent owner/operators.
Kibunga says right now, he’s just barely breaking even and worries about diesel prices still going up.
“i think most of the time you come even, you know, like what you take out and what you gain. Basically, you are not making any profit right now,” Kibunga said.
The main causes are the war with Iran and issues getting through the Strait of Hormuz, along with the continuing war between Russia and Ukraine putting pressure on infrastructure.
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