The benchmark diesel price used for most fuel surcharges is back below $4 a gallon. A decline of 2.3 cents a gallon from the prior week's number put the Department of Energy/Energy Information Agency price at $3.992. It's only the second time in the past 11 weeks that the price has been below $4. It also now has given back more than half the 21-cents-per-gallon gain recorded Feb. 12, which boosted the price to $4.109 a gallon as Middle East tensions were ramping up. The decline comes as the fear factor spurred by talk of war between Iran and Israel is making a rapid retreat from the market.  In crude, after several days of higher oil prices across the board in futures markets earlier this month that led to a significant amount of hand-wringing, those same markets have given back almost all of their gains. window.googletag = window.googletag || {cmd: []}; googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.defineSlot('/21776187881/FW-Responsive-Main_Content-Slot1', [[300, 100], [320, 50], [728, 90], [468, 60]], 'div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0').defineSizeMapping(gptSizeMaps.banner1).addService(googletag.pubads()); googletag.pubads().enableSingleRequest(); googletag.pubads().collapseEmptyDivs(); googletag.enableServices(); }); googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1709668545404-0'); }); The settlement price for Brent crude, the world's benchmark, was $87.48 a barrel on the final trading day of March. It climbed above $91 four days later and hung around the $90 mark for several days as talk turned to when prices might hit $100. But with the tit for tat Iranian-Israeli shooting match in the Middle East apparently not taking any lives and possibly having already run its course, Brent settled Monday at $87, $3 under that $90 mark and ...