Crude oil is at its lowest level since August. What a trucker pays for diesel still depends on where the truck stops.

A fuel card price list for November 11, provided to TruckNmore by a reader who owns a small fleet, shows the gap.

Diesel in Edmonton is listed at $1.91 a litre, all taxes in. In Laval, just north of Montreal, it is $2.54. In Brampton, it is $2.21. In Delta, B.C., it is $2.53.

On a 1,000-litre fill, Laval costs about $625 more than Edmonton.

Three reasons for the gap

Fuel tax. Quebec charges 20 cents a litre. Ontario charges 9 cents. Metro Vancouver charges 27.5 cents. Alberta is charging nothing. The province suspended its 13-cent fuel tax on October 1, according to the Alberta government.

Sales tax. GST adds 9 cents in Alberta. HST adds 25 cents in Ontario. GST and QST together add 33 cents in Quebec. Registered carriers can claim these taxes back. But the money leaves the trucker's pocket at the pump, and the refund comes later.

The price before tax. It is $1.82 in Edmonton, $1.86 in Brampton, $2.00 in Laval and $2.13 in Delta. This part covers the rack price charged by the refiner, the cost of hauling fuel to the site, and the retail markup. The list shows only the total, not the split.

Cheap fuel does not cancel the tax

Carriers that cross provincial lines report fuel tax under IFTA. The tax is owed where the kilometres are driven, not where the fuel is bought. A carrier that fills up in Alberta and runs through Quebec still owes Quebec's fuel tax on those kilometres. It is settled on the quarterly IFTA return.

So the fuel tax part of the gap comes back later as a bill. The pre-tax price difference does not.

Alberta's price may not last

Alberta's tax suspension runs until at least December 31, the province says. The relief is tied to the price of crude oil, and oil has fallen sharply this month. The earliest the tax could return is January 1, 2027.

The federal excise tax on diesel, normally 4 cents a litre, is also at zero. The federal government says it stays there until January 31, 2027.

Prices are fuel card prices for one account and are lower than posted retail prices.