Monthly Report · April 2026
State of Cross-Border Freight
April 2026: U.S. on-highway diesel down 2.3%, UPS parcel fuel surcharge -0.50 pts, and Canada-US passenger-lane border waits up 3 minutes on average.
Published April 1, 2026 · Covers 2026-03-01 to 2026-03-31
EIA Diesel Avg
$3.84/gal
▼ 2.3% MoM
UPS / FedEx FSC
21.50% / 20.25%
▼ 0.50 pts MoM
Network Avg Border Wait
17 min
▲ 3 min MoM
Diesel: weekly EIA national average
The U.S. on-highway diesel index averaged $3.84/gal in March 2026, a down 2.3% change from February's $3.93/gal — and up 4.9% year over year.
Weekly EIA on-highway national diesel price · weeks ending Mar 2 – Mar 30, 2026
Diesel softened steadily through the month. The week-ending high was $3.91 and the low was $3.79 — a swing of 0.12 per gallon. For shippers tracking line-haul fuel exposure, that's roughly $1 in saved fuel cost per 1,000-mile dry-van trip versus the start of the month (assuming 6.5 mpg).
Fuel surcharges: parcel and LTL
Carriers reset fuel surcharges weekly off the EIA index. Below is our estimate of each carrier's monthly average surcharge, plus a CargoTools LTL composite (see Methodology).
| Carrier / Mode | Mar 2026 avg | Prior month | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPS Ground (parcel) | 21.50% | 22.00% | ▼ 0.50 pts |
| FedEx Ground (parcel) | 20.25% | 20.75% | ▼ 0.50 pts |
| LTL composite (dry) | 35.4% | 36.1% | ▼ 0.7 pts |
LTL composite reflects the simple average of Old Dominion, XPO, Saia, and Estes published national tables applied to the month's diesel average.
Canada–US passenger-lane border waits
Correction, 1 September 2026: the border wait figures in this issue reflect passenger lane readings, not commercial truck lanes, due to a parser defect in our data collection. The methodology note below incorrectly describes them as commercial-truck readings. The defect is fixed as of this date and figures from September 2026 onward are commercial. Diesel prices and fuel surcharge figures in this issue are unaffected.
Network-wide passenger-lane wait time averaged 17 minutes across the CBSA reporting crossings — up 3 minutes from the previous month. The three busiest GTA-corridor and BC crossings:
Windsor, ON ↔ Detroit, MI
Ambassador Bridge
38 min
▲ 7 min vs prior month
Prior: 31 min
Fort Erie, ON ↔ Buffalo, NY
Peace Bridge
24 min
▲ 5 min vs prior month
Prior: 19 min
Surrey, BC ↔ Blaine, WA
Pacific Highway
22 min
▲ 4 min vs prior month
Prior: 18 min
From the CargoTools desk
March 2026 broke the trend we saw through Q4 2025 and January 2026 — diesel finally cooled, dropping 2.3% on the EIA national average. UPS and FedEx parcel fuel surcharges followed, both dropping 0.5 percentage points. That reads like good news for shippers, but two factors offset the relief: LTL accessorial creep continues (we'll cover this in a forthcoming audit), and GTA-corridor border waits ticked up sharply. Ambassador Bridge alone added 7 minutes of average commercial wait time, driven by spring construction at the approach ramps. For shippers running Toronto–Detroit lanes, the diesel relief is being eaten by detention-related accessorials at the border. Q2 forecast: diesel stable around \u003c$3.85, parcel FSCs flat, border waits worsening through May as construction season ramps. Plan reefer and time-sensitive Toronto–Detroit moves around 4–9am pickup windows to dodge the worst of it.
— CargoTools Editorial Team
What this means for your shipping costs
- → Parcel: On a $100 base parcel rate, fuel surcharge is roughly $0.50 lower per shipment versus last month. Across 1,000 shipments that's about $5/month back to the bottom line.
- → LTL: On a $400 LTL line-haul, fuel surcharge ran roughly $2.80 lower per shipment than last month. Use our FSC auditor to confirm your carrier passed the savings through.
- → Cross-border: Border waits held roughly steady. Check our live Border Wait Times dashboard before dispatch.
Use these data points in your workflow
Tool
Live Fuel Surcharge Tracker →
UPS and FedEx surcharges this week, updated from EIA diesel automatically.
Tool
FSC Auditor →
Was your fuel surcharge fair? Compare carrier billing against the EIA standard.
Tool
Border Wait Times →
Live commercial-truck wait times across all CBSA crossings.
Tool
USMCA Checker →
Confirm your shipment qualifies for duty-free Canada–US–Mexico treatment.
This report is no longer published
The April 2026 issue is kept as an archive. For current figures use the live fuel surcharge tracker and border wait times, which update every week and every 30 minutes.
Methodology & sources
Diesel prices reflect the EIA's published U.S. weekly on-highway average for the prior month. Parcel fuel surcharge percentages are CargoTools estimates — each carrier's published step size applied to that month's diesel average — not rows copied from the carriers' tables. LTL fuel surcharge is a CargoTools composite formula (9.5 + 6.7 × diesel), not any one carrier's table. Border wait times in this issue are the daily PASSENGER-lane reading sourced from CBSA, averaged across the covered month — see the correction in the border section above.