Published on October 23rd, 2022.

Mid-South residents are enjoying lower prices at the pump, but the high cost of diesel fuel is still passed on to the consumer, truckers say.

“It’s very expensive,” said Rochelle Taylor, a driver of 26 years who told FOX13 he has never seen a year like 2022.

According to AAA, the average price of diesel fuel in Tennessee is almost $4.72 a gallon, which is $1.62 higher than the average diesel fuel price of $3.10 a year ago.

Memphis is a transportation hub for the country. The Bluff City is home to FedEx, which has hundreds of thousands of trucks worldwide. In this letter to the DeSoto County News, the president of Cooper Freight Service wrote that 1 in 13 Tennessee jobs belongs to the trucking industry.

During National Truck Driver Appreciation week, Memphis drivers say they are looking forward to the day their companies will pay less for diesel.

“When the price is lower, we get paid more,” said Dante Pitts, a Memphis truck driver. “That’s all that matters to me, honestly.”

“The president is committed to bringing prices down across the board,” said White House spokesman Abdullah Hasan in a one-on-one interview with FOX13. “We’ve seen oil prices, which dictates prices across the board, come down.”

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