What is energy fuel surcharge for?

A fuel surcharge lets the customer pay for part of the fuel used to transport his load.

How these work: The basis is that trucks get 6 miles to the gallon and diesel costs $1.95 per gallon, so shipping rates are calculated based on those numbers. If diesel costs more than $1.95 per gallon, the person paying the bill for the freight pays a surcharge per mile to help reimburse the driver.

If the national average price for diesel is $4.25 per gallon, you subtract $1.95 from it to get $2.30 per gallon; divide that by 6 and you get 38.3 cents per mile fuel surcharge. Multiply by the number of miles in the trip, and that's how much surcharge the customer will pay.