Fuel Surcharge Calculator
The fuel surcharge (FSC) floats with the diesel price, so a quote from last month can bill differently today. Enter the current DOE diesel price and your carrier's schedule to get the surcharge two ways — a percent of linehaul or a cost per mile.
Fuel surcharge
The percentage (bracket) method
Most LTL and truckload carriers publish a fuel surcharge table: for each band of diesel prices, a surcharge percent applied to the linehaul. The bands step up by a fixed increment — commonly $0.06 per gallon — above a peg (base) price where the surcharge is zero. Raise the diesel price one increment and the percent ticks up one step.
Steps = ⌊ (diesel − peg) ÷ step size ⌋ · FSC % = steps × % per step
The per-mile method
Truckload deals often express the surcharge as an added cost per mile instead. Take how far the diesel price sits above the peg and divide by the truck's fuel economy — that's the extra fuel cost to move one mile — then multiply by the lane's miles.
Per-mile FSC = (diesel − peg) ÷ mpg · Surcharge = per-mile × miles
Diesel prices come from the EIA/DOE weekly national average. Your carrier sets the peg, the step size, and the percent per step — check their published schedule and plug those in here.