Pricing for diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) followed slightly divergent paths between February and March this year, with DEF prices at the pump falling by a penny per gallon while bulk tote prices actually increased two cents per gallon.
According to Integer Research, which tracks DEF prices via its DiscoverDEF website, the average U.S. DEF pump price fell by a penny to $2.74 per gallon between February and March – the continuation of a marginal downward trend, the firm said, as the pump prices is now down two cents per gallon since December of last year.
“There’s been no change to the pump price in Canada since the first location came online in October 2011,” Chris Goodfellow, emissions analyst at Integer, told Fleet Owner.
The five sites currently offering DEF in Canada are run by Pilot Flying J, he added, which has set the per gallon price at CAN 80 cents per litre – which roughly equates to $3.16 per gallon in U.S. dollars.
“Generally speaking DEF is more expensive north of the border and this pump price is around 11% higher than the U.S. average,” Goodfellow noted.
However, bulk tote prices increased two cent to $2.02 per gallon between February and March, though Integer stressed that some fleets receiving bulk DEF deliveries to permanent storage units experienced a small drop in pricing.
“The market for DEF at the pump is becoming more competitive by the day, as new locations come online and localized competition plays a bigger role in pricing strategy,” Goodfellow explained. “As a result, suppliers that priced DEF on a national level are now doing it on a state-by-state basis, or even location-by-location and, as volumes keep increasing, we’ll see more and more of this.”
It’s worth noting, Goodfellow stressed, that owner-operators still receive DEF price savings of about one third when moving from truck stop pump purchase to tote supply of DEF, even with the pricing trends moving in opposite directions.
Integer added that by the end of March, another 21 truck stop locations added DEF pumps to their fuel islands, bringing the number of U.S. refueling locations offering DEF up to 446 nationwide.
