Truckers and trucking companies in the U.S. are now struggling to justify continuing their activities as diesel prices across the nation surge to new record highs. Diesel prices continued to skyrocket this week as global energy markets cope with ongoing disruptions.

On Sunday, the average price of a gallon of diesel was $5.296, up 4.3% from the previous week and nearly twice as much as a year before. Gas prices are also high, with a national average of $4.187 a gallon, down slightly from the all-time high of $4.331 in March.

Most have already felt the impact of the nationwide gas price hike, but truckers have been hit the most by the surging costs. Truckers are now earning much less than before as the cost of shipping has not been keeping up with the surge in the price of fuel.

Some U.S. trucking companies said that if prices continue to rise and the cost of shipping does not compensate, they may be forced to shut down. In some cases, retailers have passed the rising cost of shipping to consumers from everyday items such as consumer electronics and food.

The president of Faulkner Trucking and the 2022 president of the California Trucking Association, Ron Faulkner, said that soon truckers would have no choice but to increase their rates for hauling goods across the country. If this happens, retailers will likely pass down this cost to consumers. Analysts said the rising cost of fuel would translate to rising consumer goods prices.

In March, overall inflation reached a four-decade high, with the consumer price index, which measures a broad basket of products, increasing by 8.5 percent over March 2021. The increase followed the conflict in Ukraine, which drove up energy prices in both the United States and Europe.

The new CPI figures came after the index jumped 7.9% in the year to February, marking the highest annual inflation rate in 40 years. Inflation in the United States has reached levels not seen since Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency from Jimmy Carter, owing to ongoing supply chain issues, surging demand, and rising energy prices.

Fuel prices continue to surge even as global supplies of oil have actually increased. Analysts said that trading by energy traders, most of whom work for the world's largest oil companies, banks, and privately held trading houses, may be to blame.

The daily volume of crude oil futures contracts traded increased in 2022 compared to 2021, and in some platforms, it nearly doubled compared to a decade earlier. Oil prices have been volatile even before Russian forces went to war against Ukraine when the price of a barrel of oil reached $90.Despite no change in supplies since the invasion, it has risen to $124 a barrel, falling to $95, risen to $114, and then fell to $103 a barrel today - nearly 60% higher than a year ago.