Southeast barge fuel surcharge to rise to 22.5%, a published high

Alaska Marine Lines will raise its fuel related surcharge on Southeast Alaska freight to 22.5 percent on Sept. 28, the highest rate in the carrier's published 92-week record. The charge rises from 16 percent and applies to shipments to, from and within Southeast Alaska, so freight leaving the region and moving between Southeast communities carries it too. The charge sits on top of the freight bill.

The carrier announced the change in a one-page notice dated Sept. 18, signed by Margretta Grace, the company's director of pricing. The notice says Alaska Marine Lines filed the increase with the Surface Transportation Board. The carrier's surcharge page gives a different effective date, Sept. 27, and lists Southeast at 22.5 percent for the week beginning that Sunday.

The 6.5-point increase is the second largest single move in the published record, which runs back to Dec. 29, 2024. The largest was a 7.5-point increase in April 2026. Over those 92 weeks the Southeast rate has ranged from 9.5 percent to 22.5 percent and changed six times, including a 4-point drop in June 2026 and a 1.5-point rise in August 2026.

Five of the carrier's eight published lanes do not change on the effective date, including Hawaii, which stays at 31.5 percent, and Dutch Harbor, the Aleutians and Kodiak, which stay at 31 percent. Only Southeast and Yukon move by 6.5 points; the inland trucking surcharge moves by half a point.

Since December 2024 the Southeast surcharge has risen by a factor of 2.37, more than any other water lane, while inland trucking fell from 38 to 13.4 percent. That number behaves differently because Rule 346 of Freight Tariff No. AKMR 100B ties the inland fuel surcharge to the Department of Energy diesel fuel price chart for the West Coast excluding California, using the price published each Monday. Rule 345, which governs the ocean surcharge, sets out no equivalent published formula; its title is "Application of Arbitrary Fuel Related Surcharge," where arbitrary is the tariff term for a flat add-on, not a judgment about the charge. The ocean lanes hold their rates for months and then step.

The company's surcharge page says the charge "is based on our cost of fuel and related items, capital costs associated with fuel, the nature of our services, and the competitive environment in which we work."

The record reviewed for this article consists entirely of Alaska Marine Lines notices and tariff documents. It contains no statement explaining what changed in fuel costs since the August notice, no response from the Surface Transportation Board, and no Southeast shipper, processor, grocer or local government.

The number can move again before it takes effect. On March 19, 2026, the company notified customers of an increase from 11 percent to 15 percent effective April 5. Eight days later it filed again and raised the same increase to 18.5 percent on the same date, citing "continued escalation and volatility in fuel costs since our original filing."

Freight moving on or after the effective date is billed at 22.5 percent regardless of when it was booked, and freight before it at 16 percent. Which day that is depends on which document applies: the notice says Sept. 28, the rate table Sept. 27.