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How to read this
Every page is built the same way, so once you read one you can read all of them.
The number and its date
Every price on this site is pinned to its own data date: "for the week of" a Monday for the retail survey, a business day for spot. The "Last updated" stamp under a page title is different, it says when the site last refreshed that data. If the two drift apart, trust the data date; that is the week the number belongs to.
The chart
The line is the series itself: a pump price in dollars per gallon, a spread in cents per gallon, cost per mile in cents. Region pages draw the US average behind the regional line so the local premium is visible at a glance. The range toggle narrows the view; the full history is always there.
The "vs normal" number
Our yardstick for normal is the median of the same calendar week over the prior five years. When a page says the price is 12% above normal, that is a computed figure against that five-year median, not a feel for the market. The colored tag at the top bins it, and it reads the buyer's way: above normal is the hot, expensive direction. Spread and cost-per-mile pages carry no tag, for reasons the methodology page spells out.
The table
Under the chart is the same data as numbers: the latest value and how it moved week over week, month over month, year over year, and against the five-year median. The chart is for the glance; the table is for the decision.
The per-mile translation
Wherever a page turns the price into cents per mile or the fuel cost of a 500-mile haul, the math uses a stated reference of 6.5 miles per gallon, named right on the line. It is a fixed reference for comparing weeks, not an estimate of your truck. A rig doing better than 6.5 spends less per mile than the reference; one doing worse spends more.
The note
One short paragraph in plain English, leading with the number that matters. It only uses figures already on the page. It never forecasts and it never tells you what to do.
What we do not say
We do not predict prices. We do not advise on when to fuel, where to fuel, what surcharge to set or how to write a rate con, in any phrasing. Where a figure comes from a public agency, the page names it: every number here traces to the US Energy Information Administration.
New to the vocabulary? The glossary defines every term the brief uses.