Go get your fuel surcharge table. Find two lines next to each other.

Divide the price step by the surcharge step.

On mine, every six cents of diesel buys one cent a mile. Six cents a gallon over one cent a mile is six miles per gallon.

My trucks get 4.73. Fuel card gallons over IFTA miles, January first to September twelfth.

So the table pays me for a truck I do not own. About twenty-six percent less fuel than my trucks actually burn, every mile, at every price. Not a bad week. Built into the spacing of the lines.

Twenty-six cents a mile at today’s diesel.

And the table never breaks, so nobody ever has to fix it. Every dollar diesel goes up, I fall another nickel a mile behind. Forever.

Diesel crossed six dollars this week. Do the arithmetic on yours before you read mine.

Piece goes up Monday morning first thing.