Soaring gas prices ripple through retail supply chains

From nationwide parcel carriers to individual delivery drivers, the US-Israeli war with Iran is raising costs up and down the retail supply chain.

In response to higher energy prices and other geopolitical disruptions, Kearney revised its 2026 inflation forecast for global supply costs to increase between 5% and 7% rather than 2.3%–4%, noting that companies will “feel this immediately.”

In addition, “unlike tariffs,” the consulting firm wrote, there will be “direct and immediate pass-through of energy costs to commercial contracts.”

FedEx and UPS have significantly raised their fuel surcharges since the conflict started, per a Wall Street Journal report. Both companies index their rates to the weekly price report published by the US Department of Energy, which showed diesel prices rising above $5 per gallon for the last two weeks. 

Both diesel and regular gas prices are up more than 30% from a year ago, marking one of the fastest increases in recent memory. “It’s one of largest month over month increases we’ve seen, even outpacing what we saw in 2022,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told Retail Brew.

He said his view of the downstream effects of the uptick is limited, but that anecdotally “airfares are going up, surcharges from logistics companies are going up, and I know that the price trucking companies pay is absolutely going up.”

Meanwhile, app delivery drivers are paying more at the pump as well, and DoorDash is paying out a stipend and cashback benefit to help recoup the cost. The program gives 10% cash back for users of the DoorDash Crimson card, and weekly “relief payments” for drivers who travel 125 miles or more in a week. Combined, the two benefits could total between $1.40 and $1.90 per gallon in savings.