Walmart, Costco, Stellantis adjust motor oil as Iran war lifts costs

Trucking expenses at pandemic-era highs with diesel up 77%

The Iran war has driven the price of motor oil high enough that retailers are taking action and service shops might pass on their extra costs to customers, the WSJ’s Christopher Otts and Sarah Nassauer write. The same war has pushed gasoline to $4.49 a gallon on average.

Walmart raised prices slightly for much of its motor-oil selection earlier this summer, a company spokeswoman said. Costco raised the price of its private-label Kirkland motor oils to $58 for 10 quarts, up from $36 on May 30, according to Mizuho Securities. Higher oil costs and tighter supplies are also cascading through the auto-service industry. Stellantis, the parent of the Jeep and Ram brands, recently switched its bulk oil supply for dealer service departments from 0W-20 to 5W-20 for some of its V-6 and V-8 engines. The latter is less optimal for cold weather.

The motor-oil changes sit inside a broader freight-cost squeeze that is likely to bleed through to virtually all corners of the U.S. economy, the WSJ’s Esther Fung, Laura Cooper and Costas Paris write. There is virtually no way for businesses to avoid paying more to transport goods. Trucking expenses are at their highest level since the Covid pandemic. Diesel prices are up 77% in the past year. Container-shipping rates are also up, while railroads, parcel-delivery companies such as FedEx, and the U.S. Postal Service are also raising prices.

A shortage of truck drivers is contributing to rising trucking costs. The Transportation Department says it has removed more than 28,000 drivers from the road for failing English-proficiency tests since early 2025. It has also pushed states to cancel over 30,000 CDLs illegally issued to foreign drivers.

The surge in diesel prices means a driver who drives 500 miles a day, six days a week would have paid $15,000 more for fuel since the war in Iran started, according to DAT Freight & Analytics.

Some businesses have diverted some of their freight from truck to train to find relief from higher trucking costs, but existing customers of railroads also face higher bills. Farmers shipping grain paid a 48-cent-a-mile fuel surcharge per railcar in mid-September, more than double the 19-cent surcharge from a year earlier, according to the USDA.

“I don’t see this ending soon. Chaos increases prices,” said Joseph Firrincieli, sales manager at logistics company OEC Group New York.

Separately, the U.S. and China said they agreed to a $30 billion reciprocal tariff reduction and to launch a bilateral dialogue on artificial intelligence, the Journal’s Katrina Northrop reports. The two sides also confirmed plans for Chinese leader Xi Jinping and President Trump to meet twice more this year, at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit held in the Chinese city of Shenzhen in November and the Group of 20 leaders meeting in Miami the following month. The White House said late Friday that the reduction of tariffs will cover nonsensitive goods, including U.S. exports of agricultural and medical products as well as Chinese exports of small appliances and toys. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday that Beijing and Washington had already agreed to extend a bilateral trade truce until mid-January. Critical-minerals-related projects have been completed by the Trump administration as it has worked to loosen China’s chokehold on the materials since the president’s second term began, according to a White House official.