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Special Report: "FUEL COST CRISIS" * USA - Independent truckers groan as diesel fuel prices rise
Independent truckers hauling goods across the nation's highways are emptying their wallets to keep their diesel tanks filled
Saginaw,MI,USA -MLive.com/The Saginaw News, by Cole Waterman -March 15, 2008: -- With fuel prices rising steadily, the backbone of American commerce is struggling to remain upright... Bill T. Bateson, 47, of Auburn, a trucker since he was 19 and an independent since 1985, owns two trucks for his business, BB of Auburn, Michigan. Since the first of the year, he has spent $6,800 on fuel for one truck. He estimates his profits will drop by at least 30 percent from last year... Having hauled computers, aircraft parts and various equipment across America and into Canada, Bateson now accepts jobs to drive only within Michigan... With consumers buying less because of high product prices, truckers say they are hauling smaller loads, again resulting in reduced profit... Despite independent truckers' woes, larger public trucking companies are escaping some of the fallout. Companies such as J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell, Ark., and YC Worldwide Inc. of Overland Park, Kan., have more than 10,000 trucks each and buy diesel in bulk. Such companies buy thousands of gallons of fuel when it's at a cheaper price, then store it at depots for later use... Internet-fueled rumors of an independent truckers' strike are common. Truckers also have suggested that the government cap the cost of diesel, offer tax credits for truckers and put stiffer regulations on freight brokers, the frequently-used middlemen connecting truckers with their customers... Truckers relying on brokers lose even more when they pay the broker's fees. With the brokerage system unregulated, truckers complain that shippers are unaware of how little they make. A load hauled 800 miles might cost a shipper $3,000, with $1,000 of that going to the trucker, who has expenses such as fuel, food and insurance, reports The Associated Press... "Something has to happen," Bateson said. "We have to spend all our money on fuel and not on repairs, and if you break down, you're out of business."...* Truck firms fuming about high gas prices
Reno,NV,USA -The Reno Gazzette-Journal, by JASON HIDALGO -14 March 2008: -- With 12 years experience running a trucking company, Chad Bowen thought he’d seen it all... But in the past year, the owner of Bowen Enterprises Inc. in Sparks said he’s witnessed something he’s never seen before.... As diesel prices accelerate to record levels, U.S. truck operators such as Bowen are fuming about skyrocketing fuel costs... Truckers in the West are especially affected, given the region’s traditionally higher fuel prices compared to the rest of the nation. California, the top destination for Nevada’s trucks, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, has diesel prices topping $4 per gallon in most metro areas, according to AAA. For Nevada truckers refueling in those places, that makes an already big problem even worse... While fuel prices continue to climb, many truckers now find themselves running close to empty, with several operating on razor-thin profit margins or even at a loss in an attempt to ride out the storm while preserving their market share, said Paul Enos, chief executive officer of the Nevada Motor Transport Association. Others are simply getting out of the business, Enos said... With truckers now operating at profit margins around 2 percent, that doesn’t leave much room for truckers to absorb extra costs from high fuel prices. Ultimately, consumers will start paying the price if fuel continues its skyrocketing cost... For truckers, just seeing a light at the end of the tunnel would suffice. Looking at recent trends in fuel prices, however, that light seems to be many miles away...
* Can they keep on trucking?
Santa Maria,CA,USA -The Santa Maria Times, by Sam Womack -15 Mar 2008: -- At the Chevron on Betteravia, just east of Highway 101, truckers are paying $4.24 a gallon to fill up their tanks... Rob Zillmer of Wisconsin owns and operates four trucks but said he won't buy gas in California... Marie and Rob Lindsey drive a truck for the Benny Whitehead company, hauling produce and dry goods from Florida to California. The Lindseys said Benny Whitehead has already reduced its fleet from 70 to 40 trucks because of increasing diesel prices... Zillmer said he thinks part of the problem is the amount of respect - or lack of it - that people have for truckers... Tiffany Wlazlowski, a spokeswoman for the American Trucking Association, which represents trucking companies, said fuel prices are the top concern of the group's members... The ATA and the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association have both stated that they are calling on Congress and the Bush administration to address the costs of fuel... However, there seems to be no short-term solution for truckers other than decreasing their speed and increasing their gas mileage... Jake Giesbrecht of Canada has owned and driven his own trucks for 15 years, but Friday he said, “If prices go much higher, I'm parking my truck and driving for someone else.” ... But because truckers are in and out 24 hours a day Mike Rizzo, manager of Trojan Petroleum in Santa Maria, said, he hears truckers worrying because work is slow and fuel is high... (Photo by Ian Gonzaga/Santa Maria Times - Jake Giesbrecht of Canada buys diesel fuel for his semi Friday at the Chevron station at Betteravia Road and Highway 101 in Santa Maria. He says he has been losing money on his trucking business due to rising diesel fuel prices)
* Drivers may park trucks due to cost of diesel
Mount Vernon,OH,USA -The Mount Vernon News, by Cheryl S. Splain -March 15, 2008: -- The high cost of fuel has hit everyone hard, and it doesn’t look like the prices are going to come down any time soon... Fed up with the high price of diesel fuel, truckers are talking about parking their trucks for one day, Monday, March 24... Owner-operator Tom Bark of Apple Valley who spoke with the News on Thursday from Baltimore, was in the midst of a 4 1/2-day run from California to Maryland. After spending the last 32 years driving, Bark said he’ll park his truck on March 24... Bark said the run from California to Maryland used to pay $8,000; now, it pays $2,200, about $1 a mile. To break even, Bark said he needs to make about $3.20 a mile; to make a profit, at least $4... Bark, who drives for Grand Island Trucking based in Lincoln, Neb., said the high price of diesel isn’t the only increased cost drivers are facing on the road... In addition, he said, truck payments at $1,700 a month, health insurance premiums at $277 a week, hazmat licenses, background checks and safety tests, and the cost of maintenance, all add up... As an example, Bark said that in New York state, trucks aren’t allowed to sit idling. For a first offense, drivers can get a $100 fine. The second time, it’s a $1,000 fine... “I guess I’m just so frustrated now, I’m ready to scream,” said Bark, who believes it’s time the government steps in with some aid... “There used to be a standard rate per mile,” he said. “They’ve got to get companies to set a rate where you can make a profit.”...
* Truckers anxious as fuel prices quash profits
Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Clarissa Kell-Holland -March 14, 2008: -- Diesel prices continued to shatter records on Friday, March 14, as 16 states are now showing averages at or above $4 a gallon. And while some truckers have reserves to help keep them running a little longer, others, like Dave Martin, are simply out of time... Martin and his wife, Diane, own Tonka Transport in Foster, RI... He told Land Line on Friday, March 14, he had to shut down his company the day before because he had no money left to operate or even buy fuel. He said he siphoned four gallons of fuel from his big truck Friday morning to put into his pickup truck so he could run errands... He turned down a broker this morning that wanted him to take a load from Connecticut to Oklahoma for $1,900. That trip alone is around 1,500 miles, he said, but he doesn’t even have the funds to fill up his tanks right now. Where he lives diesel fuel is selling for $4.29 a gallon... Martin said he came to the realization that he was going to have to shut down while in his workshop on Sunday, March 9...
* Wake up, White House
Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Clarissa Kell-Holland -March 14, 2008: -- OOIDA member Carol Landberg, office manager of Magann Atlantic, Inc., in Conway, SC, has a message for all truckers who are fed up with the soaring price of diesel fuel: Start pounding the phones – all the way to the White House... The number to the White House’s comment line is (202) 456-1111. If you prefer to send an e-mail message, the address is: comments@whitehouse.gov.
“Drivers need to call their (representatives), their senators and even the White House,” she told Land Line on Friday, March 14. “If the president does not know that the price of fuel is rocketing to $4 a gallon, maybe we can enlighten him and hope that it may do some good.”... Landberg said her company has 15 owner-operators working for them. She said she got the idea about having a nationwide movement to rally together and protest high fuel prices after hearing one heartbreaking story after another about how the price of fuel is affecting truckers and their families... She is trying to start a nationwide movement to rally all truckers together to voice their frustration with high fuel prices...
* What is OOIDA doing?
Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Clarissa Kell-Holland -March 14, 2008: -- OOIDA has received thousands of phone calls and e-mails on the dire situation many truckers are facing out on the road with diesel fuel prices as high as they are now... Besides working with lawmakers to make them aware of the plight of the economic conditions independent truckers are facing, OOIDA is also working to make mainstream media aware of how fuel prices are affecting independent truckers and the future health of the trucking industry... The Association has petitioned the Bush administration to immediately cease the diversion of oil supplies to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and instead allow the product to directly enter the marketplace. OOIDA has also asked the Administration to use its authority and influence to ensure the American fuel producers and refiners cease their exports of diesel and biodiesel products to other nations...
Labels: fuel costs troubles
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