Oil Prices Are Up and American Workers Are Feeling the Pinch

Summary

Consider This from NPR

Episode: Oil Prices Are Up and American Workers Are Feeling the Pinch

Date: March 26, 2026
Host: Scott Detrow
Summary prepared by: AI Podcast Summarizer

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Overview

In this episode, NPR explores the ripple effects of soaring oil prices on American workers and businesses following the onset of the US and Israel's war with Iran. With global energy supplies disrupted―notably at the vital Strait of Hormuz―the conversation covers everything from individual gig economy drivers struggling with gas prices to broad economic impacts like inflation and supply chain costs. The episode features field reports and expert analysis on the tangible ways rising oil prices are straining livelihoods across different sectors.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Personal Impact: Gig Workers on the Front Lines

• Lee Dahl, Food Delivery Driver in Detroit (00:00 – 02:02):
  • Dahl meticulously tracks his earnings and fuel costs, has had to decline lower-paying, longer-distance delivery offers due to rising gas prices.
  • Quote:

    “I'm really trying to keep my mileage down because…dollars per mile.”
    — Lee Dahl (00:44)

  • Gas prices locally have approached $4/gallon, forcing him to re-strategize which deliveries to accept, prioritizing shorter and less lucrative trips to reduce vehicle wear and gas costs.
  • Dahl, 65, supplements his Social Security income as a driver but reports operating at poverty level and having spent over $7,000 in car repairs last year.

2. Global Oil Supply Disruption and Price Surges

• Scott Detrow Recap & Introduction to Economic Analysis (03:28 – 04:05):
  • War disrupts tanker traffic at Strait of Hormuz, leading to a near-standstill in a critical oil transit point.
  • Oil benchmark price (Brent crude) now above $100/barrel; US gas prices average just under $4/gallon.

3. Economic Overview: Supply Crunch and Broader Fallout

• Scott Horsley, NPR Correspondent (04:05 – 06:04):
  • Quote:

    "The rise in diesel price ultimately going to mean higher cost for everything that has to be trucked around the country or travels by train, which is pretty much everything."
    — Scott Horsley (05:01)

  • Key drivers:
    • Diesel prices up $1.60/gallon since the war began.
    • Supply crunch impacts not just oil, but also natural gas and fertilizer.
  • Consequences:
    • Consumers spend more on fuel, less on other goods.
    • Inflation projected to re-cross 4% (OECD estimate).
    • Obstacle to Federal Reserve plans to cut interest rates; mortgage rates now back up to around 6.4%.

4. Trucking Industry: Surviving Thin Margins

• Monte Wiederholt, Owner of B.L. Reaver Transport, Ohio (06:19 – 07:41):
  • Surprised by rapid fuel hikes (from $3.89 to nearly $5/gallon within a week).
  • Small business truckers make up 96% of US fleets, have less leverage to adapt.
  • Cost-saving measures:
    • Reducing idling time, driving more efficiently.
  • Quote:

    "Trucking is a penny business. My dad taught me that. He said, you take care of the penny, son. The dollars will take care of themselves."
    — Monte Wiederholt (06:23)

  • Warns about catastrophic scenarios if prices stay at extremes (e.g., $8.31/gallon seen in Connecticut).
  • Quote:

    "We're all consumers, so in the end we're all going to pay for this. We're all going to feel it."
    — Monte Wiederholt (07:47)

5. Seafood Industry: Lobster Boys Feeling the 'Double Whammy'

• Justin and Travis Madeira, Owners of Lobster Boys (07:50 – 09:39):
  • Fuel is a major cost in both fishing and shipping lobsters from Canada to Long Island.
  • Trucks and airlines distributing lobster are charging higher fuel surcharges.
  • Concern: Lobster is a non-essential, seasonal product, making demand more sensitive to overall consumer belt-tightening.
  • Quote:

    "So the cost of that, they've tried to raise our rates, our fuel rates have gone up and then jet fuel if we're using outside airlines."
    — Justin Madeira (08:39)

  • They anticipate having to 'eat the cost' if prices remain high, but believe this will be a short-term issue that will resolve when the conflict ends.
  • Quote:

    "Everyone's going to eat it, including FedEx, including us, including the fishermen, because we all believe that this is short term."
    — Justin Madeira (09:20)

6. Future Outlook: How Long Will High Prices Last?

• Scott Horsley Responds to Long-Term Projections (09:39 – 11:02):
  • US economy more energy efficient than during previous oil shocks (e.g., 1979), with families spending only 2% of their budget on gasoline now.
  • Quote:

    “Even when the Strait of Hormuz is reopened…it's going to take time to repair some of the damaged infrastructure, to reopen wells that have been shut in.”
    — Scott Horsley (10:29)

  • Price drops are not immediate ― energy markets hike prices quickly but decrease them only slowly.
  • Ultimate uncertainty remains over how quickly a resolution might come; "the Iranians also have a say."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On being forced to adapt:

  "I will take shorter orders that don't pay as much, just take off the wear and tear and the gas. It may sound counterintuitive, and in the past for me it was. I would take the best paying thing."
  — Lee Dahl (01:24)

• On the scale of small business hardship:

  "Small business truckers, we make up about 96% of the fleets in the United States. So it makes it hard for the little guys to make the adjustments that the big guys can do..."
  — Monte Wiederholt (06:48)

• On the breadth of the cost impact:

  "We're all consumers, so in the end we're all going to pay for this. We're all going to feel it."
  — Monte Wiederholt (07:47)

• On optimism for a short-lived crisis:

  "I'm very confident that the business acumen of someone like Donald Trump is well aware of this and he's not going to let this get prolonged."
  — Justin Madeira (07:58)

• On economic resilience:

  "The US Economy has withstood a lot of shocks in recent years and has generally held up better than a lot of forecasters might have expected."
  — Scott Horsley (09:53)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 00:00–02:02 — Day-in-the-life of a gig driver facing higher gas prices (Lee Dahl)
• 04:05–06:04 — Macro-economic analysis of oil price hikes (Scott Horsley)
• 06:19–07:41 — Small trucking business perspective (Monte Wiederholt)
• 07:50–09:39 — Seafood/lobster industry challenges (Justin and Travis Madeira)
• 09:39–11:02 — Future projections for energy prices; factors shaping possible resolution (Scott Horsley)

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Conclusion

The episode spotlights how geopolitical conflict has immediate, tangible impacts for US workers—from gig economy drivers carefully weighing trips, to small fleet truckers and niche seafood distributors. For most, there are few easy solutions: everyone in the supply chain is absorbing some pain, with businesses forced to make tough trade-offs or eat unexpected costs. The biggest uncertainty remains how long the crisis will last—and with it, the squeeze on household and business budgets.

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For those who haven't listened: this episode gives a grounded, firsthand sense of how global oil disruptions can rapidly become a personal and nationwide pain point, all explained with NPR's blend of field reporting and incisive economic analysis.

Transcript

[Lee Dahl]

I'm hopping in the car, starting up right now.

[Scott Detrow]

Food delivery driver Lee Dahl gets his day started on Detroit's west side. He opens up the Uber Eats app to an offer.

[Lee Dahl]

$7 for a total of 12 miles in an estimated 34 minutes.

[Scott Detrow]

Really can't make that happen, so he turns it down. Then he gets another request, this time at a Popeyes. That's nine miles away.

[Lee Dahl]

I can make $16. Do it in 35, 40 minutes. I'm starting out of the gate. Good.

[Scott Detrow]

Dahl uses a spreadsheet to meticulously track how much he makes delivering and how much he spends on gas. The math has been looking different recently due to the war the US And Israel started against Iran.

[Lee Dahl]

I'm really trying to keep my mileage down because a key metric for me having an older car is dollars per mile.

[Scott Detrow]

One fifth of the world's oil supply used to move through the Strait of Hormuz. Now, because of the ongoing conflict, tanker traffic through the strait has come to a near standstill. And without that oil reaching the market, fuel costs are spiking everywhere, including for a gallon of gas where doll fills up.

[Lee Dahl]

Everything's getting up around $4 in this particular area.

[Scott Detrow]

The cost adds up. Dahl has had to change his delivery strategy. He is getting pickier and pickier about the orders he takes.

[Lee Dahl]

I will take shorter orders that don't pay as much, just take off the wear and tear and the gas. It may sound counterintuitive, and in the past for me it was. I would take the best paying thing.

[Scott Detrow]

Dahl is 65. He gets some income through Social Security, but says he needs the food delivery money to supplement that.

[Lee Dahl]

I'm working at a poverty level. I don't have leverage in terms of a different career. And last year I put over $7,000 in repairs and maintenance into my vehicle.

[Scott Detrow]

Consider this. Oil prices have shot up since the US And Israel started war in the Middle East. How are American workers and businesses being affected? From npr Hi, I'm Scott Detrow.

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[Scott Detrow]

It's consider this from npr. Oil prices rose again today as the US War with Iran continues to disrupt global energy supplies. The world benchmark for oil is trading above $100 a barrel, and gasoline prices in the US have jumped to an average of just under $4 a gallon. These are some of the most visible effects of the war so far, but there's likely to be broader economic fallout. In a moment, we will hear from some people whose jobs are already showing the strain of these higher fuel prices. First, though, we will get an overview from NPR's Scott Horsley. Mr. Horsley, thanks for joining us.

[Scott Horsley]

Good to be with you.

[Scott Detrow]

Iran has allowed just a few vessels to transit the Strait of Hormuz, but energy traffic in that area is just largely cut off. So what is that doing to prices?

[Scott Horsley]

We've seen some big swings in prices over the last week as oil traders try to assess how long this might go on. Prices fell early in the week after President Trump hinted at a possible settlement, but that relief turned out to be short lived. And today oil prices are back up again, although not as high as they had been. Brent crude, as you mentioned, is just over $100 a barrel. the gas pump, prices have jump about a dollar a gallon since the war began. Diesel prices are up even more, about $1.60 a gallon. And all of this reflects a genuine supply crunch, not only for oil, but also for natural gas and fertilizer, as those shipments in the Middle east have really been disrupted by the war.

[Scott Detrow]

And these are all things that factor into the prices of so many other things. What's the best way to think about the broader impact of all of this on the US Economy?

[Scott Horsley]

Well, it's not good. The more money people have to spend on gas, the less they have to spend on everything else that they want to buy. And the rise in diesel price ultimately going to mean higher cost for everything that has to be trucked around the country or travels by train, which is pretty much everything. Even before the war started, inflation had been inching up and economic growth had been slowing down. And the war is likely to make both those Headwinds worse. How much is hard to say. As Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said last week, nobody knows. A lot is going to depend on how long this goes on. But the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projects this will push US inflation back above 4% percent this year, not nearly as high as we saw in 2022, but not the direction anyone wants to see at a time when people are already frustrated about the cost of living. Wartime inflation will make it harder for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates. And Freddie Mac said today mortgage rates, which had briefly dipped below 6%, are now back up around 6.4%. So that's not going to help with the sluggish housing market.

[Scott Detrow]

So that is the big picture economic view. And Scott, I want you to stick with me for a few minutes because I want to hear how this is playing out throughout the economy, how it's affect people's jobs. And I want to start with the view of someone who is watching this from the wheel of a tractor trailer.

[Monte Wiederholt]

Owning a truck fuel is your biggest cost. It was pretty much sticker shock when you were paying 389 a gallon or whatever and you come out a weekend later and it's almost $5. Trucking is a penny business. My dad taught me that. He said, you take care of the penny, son. The dollars will take care of themselves.

[Scott Detrow]

That's Monte Wiederholt, who owns a small truck fleet in Ohio called B.L. reaver Transport. He's been trucking for almost 50 years. His fleet moves around the Midwest. Their long hauls average 300 miles.

[Monte Wiederholt]

Small business truckers, we make up about 96% of the fleets in the United States. So it makes it hard for the little guys to make the adjustments that the big guys can do because we don't really have the leverage.

[Scott Detrow]

Wiederhold says his company is always looking for ways to keep the costs down.

[Monte Wiederholt]

We've always tried to eliminate idling. Instead of leaving the truck idle for 10 minutes or whatever while you're checking in, just shut the truck off. Maybe drive a little bit slower. Those little things like that can help you save some money.

[Scott Detrow]

He says he has faced a lot of highs and a lot of lows in his five decades in the trucking business and feels like he can probably get through this moment. But he is worried about what will happen if gas prices get much higher and stay there.

[Monte Wiederholt]

I heard the other day out in Connecticut there was a truck stop that was charging $8.31 a gallon for fuel. If that fuel goes to that level and stays there for an extended period of time, our economy, our country is going to be in a real hurt.

[Scott Detrow]

I think we're hold feels like no matter what business you are in, increases in energy costs will trickle down to everyone.

[Monte Wiederholt]

We're all consumers, so in the end we're all going to pay for this. We're all going to feel it.

[Scott Detrow]

Justin Madeira agrees that everybody's going to feel the hit if oil prices stay high. And at the same time, though, he is confident it won't get to that.

[Justin Madeira]

I'm very confident that the business acumen of someone like Donald Trump is well aware of this and he's not going to let this get prolonged.

[Scott Detrow]

Justin and his brother Travis Madeira are fourth generation lobster fishermen. They are the owners of Lobster Boys, a lobster wholesale business based on Long Island. Their company has an e commerce website that sells lobsters domestically and internationally, sourcing their lobsters directly from Canadian fishermen. Fuel plays a role in all parts of their business. Travis says the fishermen he talks to are concerned about fuel costs.

[Justin Madeira]

These guys, you know, they're buying thousand gallons, probably like minimum to fuel in their boat. So it's a lot when it all adds up.

[Scott Detrow]

And then there's the cost of distribution.

[Justin Madeira]

All our lobsters come down from Canada down to our US Facility on long haul trucks, whether it's our internal truck or an outside trucker company that we hired. So the cost of that, they've tried to raise our rates, our fuel rates have gone up and then jet fuel if we're using outside airlines.

[Scott Detrow]

Another important factor for the company. Lobsters aren't necessarily a need, so demand could go down if families don't have the extra money to treat themselves to lobster. And in the coming months, because this

[Justin Madeira]

happens in our industry, like it's a seasonal business. So it's a double whammy on a product like ours.

[Scott Detrow]

Justin and Travis Madeira say they are going to have to eat the cost themselves if fuel prices don't go down. But they do feel confident that this is a short term issue.

[Justin Madeira]

Unless this is somehow over the next couple weeks not resolved in a significant way that the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is opened up, then we're just going to maintain normal operations and eat the cost. Everyone's going to eat it, including FedEx, including us, including the fishermen, because we all believe that this is short term.

[Scott Detrow]

Scott Horsley, you've been listening to this. The thing I want to eat right now is lobster, but let's push past that. And you're hearing some confidence there that the economic pain of this war won't necessarily stick around very long. How realistic is that view?

[Scott Horsley]

Well, let's hope the lobster boys are right. I will say the US Economy has withstood a lot of shocks in recent years and has generally held up better than a lot of forecasters might have expected. We do have some things going for us. For one, the overall economy is much more energy efficient than it once was. The average family spends only about 2% of its budget on gasoline. We were spending about two and a half times that share back in 1979 at the time of the Iranian Revolution. That said, the longer fuel prices stay elevated, the more we're going to feel those ripple effects on the cost of everything else.

[Scott Detrow]

Let's say there is an agreement. The war ends this week, right? How long would it take for prices to start to come down?

[Scott Horsley]

You know, energy prices tend to go up quickly when supplies are disrupted and then take their time in coming down. And even when the Strait of Hormuz is reopened to normal traffic, it's going to take time to repair some of the damaged infrastructure, to reopen wells that have been shut in. We heard Justin Madeira say he's confident the president's business acumen will lead him to end this war quickly. Certainly Trump would seem to have every incentive to do so to help his own political standing. But, you know, the Iranians also have a say. So while it was the president's choice to start this war, it may not be entirely up to him to decide when it ends.

[Scott Detrow]

That is NPR Scott Horsley. Scott, do you want to give your home address for the lobster delivery, or should we do that later?

[Scott Horsley]

I'll start the butter.

[Scott Detrow]

This episode was produced by Mia Venkat with audio engineering by Hannah Glovna. It was edited by William Troup, Raphael Nam And Maureen Pow. NPR's correspondent Bill Chappell contributed to the reporting in this episode. Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigun. Scott, it's Consider this from npr. I'm Scott Detrow. Support for NPR and the following message come from Washington Wise decisions made in Washington can affect your portfolio every day. Washington Wise from Charles Schwab, is an original podcast that unpacks the stories, making news and how they may affect your finances and portfolio. Host Mike Townsend and his guests explore policy initiatives for retirement, savings, taxes, trade and more. Download the latest episode and [e-mail] WashingtonWise or wherever you listen.

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