A look back at the 2018 summer driving season
Now that the book has been closed on the summer driving season, perhaps one of the most glaring features of the season was the lack of volatility in retail prices. The summer retail price average during the period from Memorial Day through Labor Day was the highest it had been since 2014 even though the range between low and
high prices during the summer was the narrowest seen over the past five years.
In this special report, we’ll take a deeper look at retail prices spanning the period of May 25 through September 7 from 2014-2018, including:
- What factors kept U.S. retail price averages in a narrow range
- A look at the rise in rack-to-retail margins
- Overall gasoline demand during the summer months
- What regions performed best and which experienced demand destruction
Here's a snapshot of the summer margins in comparison to previous years:
