JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The national average for gas climbed past $4 a gallon for the first time since 2022, and truck drivers said they felt every cent of it.
AAA data showed regular gas prices sat more than a dollar higher than they were before the U.S. and Israel launched a joint war against Iran. Analysts tied the spike to rising global oil prices connected to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.
News4JAX spoke with truckers at a Love’s Travel Stop, where regular gas was running $4.18 a gallon, to find out how much the surge was costing them on the road.
The pain was sharper for diesel drivers. In Florida, diesel sat at $5.73 a gallon — above the national average and more than $2 higher than the state’s average of $3.69 just one month earlier.
Scott, a truck driver, broke down exactly what the increase cost him per fill-up.
“It was about two bucks less a gallon,” Scott said. “So about $200 more on 100 gallons.”
That 100 gallons got Scott roughly 1,000 miles — about a day and a half of driving. He filled up every other day.
“I am filling up every other day, and the same as before, it’s just costing a lot more money,” he said.
Fellow trucker Dennis summed it up simply.
“Way too much,” Dennis said of his fuel spending. “Something has to be done, but I don’t know what they’re gonna do.”
The last time drivers paid that much at the pump was during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nearly four years earlier, according to AAA.