Pick a railroad's program, enter the car-miles, and see the fuel surcharge per car and across the shipment — plus the factor itself, so you can check it against the one on your invoice. Every program's strike price, step, and rounding is shown.
August 2026 U.S. on-highway diesel average: $5.462/gal. Under the two-month rule this prices bills of lading dated on or after October 1, 2026.
Showing Norfolk Southern’s own posted factor for this month, not our arithmetic. Effective Oct 1, 2026 (August 2026 average $5.462/gal).
Fuel surcharge, all cars
$8,880
Factor
$0.74/mi
Per car
$888
Fuel as a share of line-haul
21.1%
If this lane runs weekly, per year
$461,760
Planning estimate. The factor that actually bills is set by the rate authority on your shipment, and contract programs differ from public tariffs on the same railroad. Verify at Norfolk Southern before disputing a charge.
A rail fuel surcharge is not a negotiated number. It is an index formula, published in a tariff, that any shipper can reproduce on a spreadsheet. All six Class I railroads use the same skeleton:
surcharge factor = base + round( (index − strike) ÷ step ) × increment
The base is what the program already pays at the strike itself, before a single step is added. It is zero on five of the six railroads here, which is why it usually goes unmentioned — but Union Pacific’s program starts at 5 cents per mile the moment diesel reaches $2.30, and leaving that term out of the arithmetic undercharges UP by a nickel a mile, or $60 on a 1,200-mile car.
For a mileage-based program the increment is cents per car-mile and the index is diesel. Norfolk Southern’s $2.50 program adds a cent per mile for every four cents per gallon above $2.50, so at an August 2026 average of $5.462 the posted factor is 74 cents per mile. On a 1,200-mile move that is $888 per car, before line-haul.
For a revenue-based program the increment is percentage points of the line-haul and the index is crude. NS-8003 adds 0.3% per dollar of WTI above $64; NS-8004 adds 0.4% per dollar above $90. Same railroad, same month, and one of them bills zero because crude never reached its trigger.
Strike prices and steps as published by each railroad, last checked September 19, 2026. Where a railroad posts its own factor we show that figure rather than recomputing it.
| Program | Index | Strike | Step |
|---|---|---|---|
| Norfolk SouthernNS mileage-based program ($2.50 strike) | Diesel (HDF) | $2.50/gal | $0.01/mi per $0.040/galrounds up |
| Norfolk SouthernTariff NS-8003 | WTI crude | $64/bbl | 0.3% per $1/bblrounds up |
| Norfolk SouthernTariff NS-8004 | WTI crude | $90/bbl | 0.4% per $1/bblrounds up |
| Union PacificUP-6004 | Diesel (HDF) | $2.30/gal | $0.01/mi per $0.050/galrounds down · starts at $0.05/mi |
| BNSFBNSF Rules Book 6100-B, Item 3376 | Diesel (HDF) | $2.50/gal | $0.01/mi per $0.050/galrounds up |
| CSXCSXT 8662 | Diesel (HDF) | $3.75/gal | $0.01/mi per $0.040/galrounds up |
| CNCN Tariff 7403 | Diesel (HDF) | $2.30/gal | $0.0060/mi per $0.025/galrounds down |
| CPKCCPKC Tariff 9700 | Diesel (HDF) | $2.30/gal | $0.0060/mi per $0.025/galrounds down |
Union Pacific, BNSF, CSX, CN, and CPKC parameters here are for planning. BNSF’s current rules book and CN’s tariff library require a login, and CPKC posts a bi-weekly factor table rather than a formula, so confirm against the railroad before you invoice or dispute on these numbers.
Three checks catch most of what is wrong on a fuel line. First, the basis month: the surcharge on an October bill of lading should reflect August’s index, not September’s. Second, the program: a contract move billed on the public tariff factor, or the reverse, is the single most expensive error, because the two strike prices can differ by more than a dollar a gallon. Third, the mileage: rail miles come from a routing engine, and a reroute or a software version change moves them without anyone telling you.
The hard part is rarely the arithmetic. It is having the car, the lane, the billed miles, and the invoice in one place to compare — which on most terminals means a month-end rebuild from the waybill, the scale ticket, and the freight bill. Rebulk’s transload operating system keeps them on one record, so the fuel line reconciles against the move that actually happened.
Every Class I program is the same shape: take the fuel index, subtract a strike price, divide by a step, multiply by an increment, and add any base the program already carries at the strike. A mileage-based program adds about a cent per car-mile for every 4 or 5 cents per gallon of diesel above the strike; a revenue-based program adds a fraction of a percent of the line-haul for every dollar per barrel of crude above the strike. What differs by railroad is the strike, the step, the base, and which way the division rounds. Union Pacific is the one program here with a non-zero base — its factor is already 5 cents per mile the moment diesel reaches $2.30.
Mileage-based programs read the EIA on-highway diesel price, usually called DOE-HDF in tariffs, published weekly and averaged monthly. Revenue-based programs read West Texas Intermediate crude. Your rate authority should name the exact series — some programs reference a regional PADD subset rather than the national average, and the two can differ by several cents a gallon.
Because of the two-month rule. A surcharge attaches to shipments whose bill of lading is dated on or after the first day of the second calendar month after the index month. August diesel prices October bills of lading. When fuel moves fast, the surcharge you pay reflects the market two months ago in both directions.
Different strike prices and different rounding. A program that strikes at $2.00 has been accruing for far longer than one that strikes at $3.749, so at the same diesel price one can be double the other. Rounding matters more than it looks: rounding up on a 4-cent step versus down on a 2.5-cent step is a few cents a mile, which is hundreds of dollars on a long car-mile lane.
No, and this is the most common reconciliation error. Railroads bill fuel on tariff mileage from a rail routing engine — Union Pacific uses the PC*Miler Rail fuel surcharge router, and moved to Version 32 on September 1, 2026. Rail miles follow the actual interchange route, so they routinely exceed the highway distance between the same two points.
Yes, and the arithmetic is reproducible, which is what makes it auditable. Pull the index for the basis month, apply your program's strike, step, and rounding, multiply by the billed car-miles, and compare to the invoice. Common findings are the wrong program applied to a contract move, stale mileage after a routing change, and the surcharge applied to accessorials that the tariff excludes.
Rebulk ties each railcar to its waybill, its scale tickets, its demurrage clock, and its freight bill — so fuel surcharges reconcile against the move instead of a spreadsheet rebuilt at month end.
