Businesses start to add fuel surcharges to deliver products as oil price increases from Iran war hit home
Source: The Independent
Tuesday 31 March 2026 19:13 EDT
Businesses are starting to add fuel surcharges to deliver products as the price of oil increases amid the Iran war. As President Donald Trump continues his military campaign with Israel in the Middle East, Americans are feeling the burden of the war at home.
Oil prices have soared both domestically and abroad, causing a headache at the pump. The national average price of regular gas has jumped to more than $4 a gallon, according to the American Automobile Association, which is the highest since 2022. Diesel is even higher at around $5.45 per gallon.
Americans’ grocery prices will also go up since it takes fuel to grow produce, raise livestock and drive food to stores and restaurants. The wholesale price of fresh salmon has jumped from $6.25 a pound in February to $6.48 a pound, The New York Times reported. The U.S.-Israeli strikes began at the end of February and have continued throughout March. Central Command has said the U.S. has hit at least 10,000 targets. But there is no end to the war in sight.
Janice Schreiber from Expana, a market data provider for the agriculture and food industries, explained how a fuel surcharge was being added at multiple points during salmon delivery. “It all has to be done rather quickly, and at each of the different points, there is a fuel surcharge being added,” Schreiber told The NYT. She noted this is happening “during one of the highest periods of demand for salmon,” which is before Easter.
Read more: https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/fuel-surcharges-iran-war-oil-prices-b2949604.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
OMFG! It's retail sales day today 
Retail sales in the US jumped 0.6% month-over-month in February 2026, rebounding from a 0.1% drop in January and above forecasts of a 0.5% gain, Trading Economics, 4/1/26
https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/retail-sales
From the source: https://www.census.gov/retail/sales.htm
Important note: these aren't inflation-adjusted. Although a 0.6% gain in February beats February's inflation rate, the 0.25%/month average of January and February combined doesn't (it matches inflation). Which means people actually bought the same amount of goods and services in this 2-month period. The price increases give the illusion that they bought more. They didn't. The media won't tell you this.
CPI data series: https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/CUSR0000SA0
Important note #2 - the above is for February (and January). The attack on Iran began February 28, so Iran wasn't a factor in retail sales.
CNBC had nothing yet at post time and neither did Yahoo! Finance nor Forbes. MarketWatch finally put up an article and Barron's just added one too.
ETA - the Barron's one (wanted to test the "gift" article thingy) - Americans Kept Spending in February as Retail Sales Beat Expectations
I'll check"
and "OMFG, it's ADP day today "
but I checked first and saw your post. 