Fuel Costs and Fuel Surcharges for Traffic Control Companies

Traffic control is a driving business with a stopping problem. Trucks go out loaded, drive to sites that are frequently not close, sit for a shift, and come back. Devices get moved between jobs. Crews travel between sites in a day. None of that is optional, and all of it is bought at whatever diesel costs that week.

That is manageable when prices are stable. It is a margin problem when they are not, and 2026 has not been stable.

The current picture

The U.S. Energy Information Administration surveys retail diesel weekly. As of the week of September 14, 2026, the U.S. average on-highway diesel price was $6.285 per gallon — $2.546 per gallon higher than a year earlier.

The recent trend is steep. EIA's weekly U.S. No. 2 diesel retail price series shows $5.599 for the week of August 31, $5.967 for September 7, and $6.285 for September 14 — roughly 68 cents a gallon in two weeks.

Check the current week before you use any of this. The point is not the number; it is that a rate sheet signed a year ago was priced against a very different cost base.

Work out your actual exposure

Most owners can say fuel "has gone up a lot" and not what it costs them per job. Three figures make it concrete.

1. Gallons per month. From fuel card statements, not estimates. Split by vehicle class if you can — service trucks, flatbeds, attenuator trucks, crew vehicles.

2. Cost per job type. Divide fuel by job volume for a month, then refine: a rural highway closure 60 miles out is a different fuel job from a city lane closure eight miles away. If you track mileage per job, this comes out of the data you already have. Job costing for traffic control companies covers attaching costs to jobs at all.

3. Sensitivity. Multiply monthly gallons by a dollar per gallon. That single number — what an extra dollar costs you a month — is what makes the conversation with a customer concrete rather than rhetorical.

A company burning 4,000 gallons a month is exposed to about $4,000 a month for every dollar of movement. Against the year-on-year change above, that is a real hole in a fixed-rate agreement.

How surcharge clauses are written

A fuel surcharge adjusts payment when a published index moves past an agreed point. Every workable clause specifies five things:

The index. Name it precisely: the EIA weekly U.S. on-highway diesel average, or the relevant EIA regional series. Both parties can look it up; neither has to trust the other's figure.

The baseline. The price the rates were built on — usually the index value on a stated date, or an agreed reference price.

The trigger. The movement that starts an adjustment — commonly a threshold such as a stated number of cents above the baseline, so small fluctuations do not generate paperwork.

The calculation. How the adjustment is computed: a percentage of invoice, an amount per mile, or an amount per trip or per day. Percentage of invoice is simplest; per mile is fairest on distance-heavy work.

The reset. How often the index is read and the surcharge recalculated — weekly, monthly or per invoice period — and whether it applies to work performed or invoiced in that period.

A clause missing any one of these becomes an argument at exactly the moment prices move.

Two more points worth agreeing in writing: whether the surcharge works both ways (a customer is more likely to accept one that falls when prices fall), and whether it applies to standing rentals where devices sit on a site and nobody is driving. Master service agreements and rate sheets covers where these clauses live.

If your agreements have no clause

Most traffic control rate sheets do not, and you cannot invent one unilaterally. Realistic options:

Schedule a rate review. Annual or semi-annual reviews are normal in this trade, and a review conversation supported by your own numbers and a public index is a very different discussion from an ad hoc price increase. Raising rates with existing traffic control customers covers running it.

Price new quotes at current cost. Existing agreements may be fixed; new work is not. Make sure your estimating inputs are refreshed rather than carried forward from last year's spreadsheet. Bidding traffic control jobs: estimating basics covers the inputs.

Add distance pricing where it is missing. If long-distance jobs are priced the same as local ones, fuel volatility hits hardest on exactly the jobs that already carry the most cost. A trip or mileage charge prices that structurally, independent of price movement. Keep it separate from any surcharge so you are not charging twice for the same thing.

Propose the clause for the next term. A well-drafted, two-way clause with a public index is a reasonable ask at renewal, and easier to agree in a calm month than a bad one.

Reduce the gallons

Pricing is half the response. The other half is burning less, and in this trade most of that is dispatch, not driver behaviour.

Route and sequence. The same four jobs run in a different order can differ substantially in miles. Dispatch that knows where crews and devices already are makes better sequences than a whiteboard does. Daily dispatch routine for traffic control companies covers the routine.

Avoid the second trip. Returning to a yard for a device that should have been on the truck is pure waste — fuel, hours and often a delayed start. Job kits per job type are the fix. Tracking traffic control devices by job site covers knowing what is where.

Consolidate pickups. Devices left on completed jobs mean special trips later. Scheduled pickup runs that sweep several nearby jobs cut both fuel and lost device charges. Charging for damaged and lost traffic control devices covers the other side of that.

Watch idling and equipment. Light towers, message boards and attenuator trucks idling through a night shift consume fuel that nobody assigned to a job. Work zone lighting and light towers covers the lighting side.

Maintain the fleet. Tyre pressure and service intervals are unglamorous and real. Equipment maintenance programs for traffic control fleets covers keeping it scheduled.

Watch the whole cost base, not just fuel

Fuel moves visibly; other inputs move quietly. In the 2026 AGC and HCSS highway work zone survey, more than a third of contractors reported that rising material prices had affected their ability to buy key safety equipment and materials such as barriers, signage and protective devices.

If device replacement is being deferred because prices rose, that is a compliance risk accumulating on a spreadsheet nobody is reading. Equipment fleet replacement planning covers treating replacement as a scheduled cost.

What to do this month

1. Pull last month's gallons from the fuel card statement.
2. Multiply by a dollar to get your per-dollar sensitivity.
3. Check today's EIA weekly diesel price against the price your current rate sheets were built on.
4. List agreements with a surcharge clause, and those without.
5. Refresh estimating inputs so new quotes carry current cost.
6. Pick one dispatch change — pickup consolidation or job kits — and measure the miles next month.

Traffic OS ties jobs, crews, devices and mileage together so cost per job is something you can read rather than reconstruct, with rate sheets held per customer and invoices built from the signed ticket. Flat tiers of $499, $949 and $1,499 a month as of September 2026, no per-user charge — see the pricing page and the features page, or book a walkthrough.

Prices quoted here were current at the time of writing and change weekly. Nothing in this post is legal, tax or accounting advice; contract clauses should be drafted or reviewed by a qualified adviser.