Five states on one run, and the tax changes at every line

A trailer leaves Newark for Chicago and the diesel tax under the wheels changes four times before the Illinois line. Nobody stops the truck at each one. The return still asks you to account for every gallon burned in each jurisdiction, at that jurisdiction's rate.

Fuel tax by state for trucking routes is the part of the rate a driver learns last and a dispatcher learns first. Three numbers sit on the same gallon. The price on the sign is what you pay. The tax inside it is what the state collects. The line on the IFTA return is what the settlement uses, and it matches neither one.

The ladder on an Interstate 80 run

The federal diesel layer is 0.244 USD a gallon, made up of the 0.243 excise plus 0.001 for the leaking underground storage tank fund. It sits on every gallon in the country, so it explains nothing about the differences below it.

State	IFTA diesel line	All in at the pump
New Jersey	0.561	0.8055
Pennsylvania	0.741	0.985
Ohio	0.470	0.714
Indiana	0.630	0.884
Illinois	0.738	1.036
Iowa	0.325	0.569

Both columns are US dollars per gallon. The IFTA figures are the 3Q2026 matrix for a US-licensed carrier, and the all-in figures are from the EIA motor fuel tax sheet, July 2026 revision, with the federal 0.244 inside them.

Read the all-in column in the order a truck meets it and the tax does not climb. It steps. New Jersey at 0.8055, Pennsylvania at 0.985, Ohio at 0.714, Indiana at 0.884, Illinois at 1.036.

That shape decides where the tank gets filled. Ohio is the low point of the five states on this run and it sits third from the start. Illinois is the top of the ladder and it is where the load stops. Leave New Jersey with enough fuel to reach the Ohio Turnpike, fill there, and the tank that leaves Toledo is the one carrying you across Indiana and into the dearest diesel tax on the trip.

Two columns, two jobs

The difference between those columns is not a mistake to be reconciled. IFTA settles tax on the distance you ran in each jurisdiction, at that jurisdiction's fuel rate, so the return works from the tax alone. The pump works from the tax plus the federal layer plus whatever else the state folds in.

Illinois separates the two widest of the six. The return uses 0.738. The pump carries 1.036. Illinois diesel on the state sheet is 0.571 of excise and 0.221 of other charges, and a per-gallon IFTA line does not reproduce that mix. Pennsylvania sits tighter, 0.741 on the return against 0.985 at the pump.

Quote a lane off the pump and you include federal tax you will never settle. Quote it off the matrix and you leave out charges you did pay. Either way the difference lands in the cost line.

One country, two ladders

Now run Interstate 10. California is not a step above the rest of that corridor. It is a different ladder.

The tax sheet puts California all in at 1.1734 a gallon. Arizona is 0.434, New Mexico 0.47275, Texas 0.444, Louisiana 0.45325. On the IFTA matrix the same four read 0.260, 0.210, 0.200 and 0.200 for a US-licensed carrier.

EIA's retail survey for the week of 2 November shows what that does to the pump. California's district printed 8.076 a gallon. The Gulf Coast district, which holds Texas and Louisiana, printed 5.912. The national average was 6.292, down 0.060 from the week before. The spread between the dearest district and the cheapest stands at 2.262 a gallon.

A truck on a California lane and a truck on a Gulf Coast lane are not running the same business at the same rate. Tax and retail price move together on that corridor, which is why a load out of Los Angeles prices harder than one into it.

The 401 crosses one line

Ontario's corridor behaves nothing like that. The 401 runs Toronto to Windsor without leaving one fuel tax jurisdiction, and Toronto to Detroit is 370 km on our distance table. The change comes at the bridge. Michigan starts on the far bank at 0.778 all in and 0.524 on the return.

Ontario diesel printed 252.2 cents a litre in the Natural Resources Canada survey of 3 November, against a national average of 263.4. Quebec printed 289.7, the dearest province on the board. Alberta was the cheapest at 233.4, and the spread between those two ends is 56.3 cents a litre.

The tax side is where the Canadian corridor gets strange. The IFTA matrix prints Ontario twice. One line reads 0.2436 US dollars a gallon for a carrier licensed in the United States. The other reads 0.0900 Canadian dollars a litre for a carrier licensed in Canada. Same province, same litre, two lines. Quebec does the same at 0.5468 against 0.202. Which line is yours depends on whose plate is bolted to the tractor, and the American line is the one that moves when the loonie moves. The Bank of Canada had USD/CAD at 1.3994 on 3 November.

Read the diesel column while you are in that matrix, not the gasoline column. British Columbia prints 0.406 for diesel against 0.3924 for gasoline. The wrong line files the wrong number.

Fuel tax by state for trucking routes tells you where to buy

EIA's districts are built around supply, not around routes. On the Newark to Chicago run the retail district changes once, at the Ohio line. Central Atlantic covers New Jersey and Pennsylvania at 6.486. Midwest covers Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan at 6.402. The tax changes four times on that same run, so the district figure cannot tell you which side of the Pennsylvania line to buy on. The tax table can.

What to do with it before the next quote

Write the jurisdiction list for the run before you write the rate. Toronto to Chicago touches Ontario, Michigan, Indiana and Illinois. Newark to Chicago touches five states. Count them off the map, not off the rate confirmation.

Then read the diesel line for each one, on the right side of the licence question, and keep the miles split by jurisdiction as you go. A load plan that shifts the routing shifts the tax with it.

Check the crossing before you pick one. Five of the nine crossings we track had updated at capture this morning, with the Ambassador Bridge and Lacolle both clear and Pacific Highway at five minutes.

Fuel tax by state for trucking routes is the input a carrier controls before the wheels turn, because routing decides which jurisdictions you pay. Run your burn rate through the fuel cost calculator and price the lane at today's diesel. The rate tables are published every quarter. What is left is the route and the burn.

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Sources: Natural Resources Canada weekly diesel survey, print date 3 November 2026. U.S. Energy Information Administration federal and state motor fuel taxes sheet, July 2026 revision, and the EIA weekly retail diesel survey, week of 2 November 2026. IFTA, Inc. quarterly Tax Matrix, 3Q2026. Bank of Canada Valet API, observation 3 November 2026. CBSA border wait times, captured 4 November 2026. Distance table from the Northern Mile dashboard.

How these numbers are built: https://dashboard.northernmilemedia.com/methodology/nmdi/

Fuel tax rates by state and province: https://dashboard.northernmilemedia.com/fuel-tax-rates/ US diesel by district and state: https://dashboard.northernmilemedia.com/us-diesel/ Ontario diesel, city level: https://dashboard.northernmilemedia.com/diesel-prices/ontario/toronto/ Quebec diesel: https://dashboard.northernmilemedia.com/diesel-prices/quebec/ Run your own burn: https://dashboard.northernmilemedia.com/fuel-cost-calculator/