WEX Index Shows Fleets Kept Buying the Same Fuel as US Prices Jumped 43 Percent to $4.85 a Gallon
Commercial fleets paid a lot more for fuel this year and bought about the same amount. That’s the main finding of the first WEX Index, a fleet spending report the fuel card company released on November 10. It draws on transactions from more than 600,000 mobility customers between January and September 2026.
In the third quarter, the average US fuel price in WEX’s data was $4.85 a gallon, up about 43% from $3.38 a year earlier. Gallons pumped stayed essentially flat. Fleets have routes to run and loads to deliver, so when fuel spikes they mostly eat the cost.
Where the money leaks
The report looks for spending fleets can still control.
- Where drivers fill up. 38.1% of North American commercial fleets paid more than WEX’s local Fuel Price Index benchmark, and 25.8% paid less. Same fuel, same area, different price.
- Which grade they pick. Premium made up 7.6% of gasoline fill-ups across five big industries, at an average of 78 cents a gallon more. For most work vehicles that’s money for nothing.
- EV replacement. Of the vehicles WEX assessed, it flagged 27% as good candidates to swap for electric models, with average lifetime savings of $16,595 each.
WEX’s CEO, Melissa Smith, put it plainly: fleets can’t control the price of fuel, but they can control how they respond to it.
Who gains from the spike
The report is written for fleet managers. The same numbers also explain WEX’s own year. The company earns more when fuel costs more, because much of its revenue is a share of each dollar spent on its cards.
In the third quarter, WEX’s mobility segment brought in $435.1 million, up 20.6%. About $57.3 million of that came from higher fuel prices alone. Fuel dollars processed rose 42.5% to $18 billion while gallons processed slipped 0.2%. Strip out fuel prices and currency, and mobility grew 4.4%.
So when WEX tells fleets where they’re overpaying, it’s offering advice on a cost that’s also lifting its revenue. The benchmarks are still useful. They come from real transactions, and the five-step savings checklist in the report doesn’t depend on WEX’s take.
WEX plans to make the index a regular series. With its guidance assuming $4.81 a gallon in the fourth quarter, the next edition is unlikely to bring relief.