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TRUCKING TROUBLES * USA - Fuel costs clog truck companies
Dire steps taken to save pennies
Toledo,OH,USA -The Toledo Blade, by LARRY P. VELLEQUETTE -March 13, 2008: -- With the cost of diesel fuel having risen at the pump almost 80 percent in the last three years, trucking company owner Tony Tomase crowed about finding a penny on his garage floor yesterday... "We're fighting for pennies. You've got to," said Tomase, owner of GetGo Transportation Co., a trucking company employing more than two dozen drivers in Lake Township. "You make your money on pennies per mile." ... Across the nation, independent truckers are shutting down their rigs and trucking firms are scratching their heads for new ways to save fuel as the ballooning price of diesel flows its way through the economy... 
Truck drivers and trucking firms are using technology like never before to decrease fuel usage. Where a firm before might look for the quickest way to deliver a particular load, electronic route mapping software is used to map the most cost-efficient route... Companies are asking drivers to turn off their trucks when they're not driving. Auxiliary power supplies like IdleAire - the large yellow "elephant trunks" that now hang from many truck stop canopies - provide in-cab heating and cooling for about $1.85 an hour, far cheaper than the 1.5 gallons of diesel burned per hour by an idling truck... Despite the tough economic conditions, GetGo's Mr. Tomase said he and his 25 drivers are still making money, even as they implement a company-wide austerity program to trim fuel costs wherever possible... (Photos by Amy E. Voigt/The Blade: 1. Get Go owner Tony Tomase has his fleet back on the Ohio Turnpike because tolls are cheaper than diesel - 2. A message board at Get Go tells how drivers can cut fuel costs)* Diesel: Fuel for Inflation? - Truckers Face Record Pump Prices to Get Goods to Stores
Washington,DC,USA -The Washington Post, by Steven Mufson -March 13, 2008: -- Lee Klass was hauling 41,000 pounds of hairspray from Florida to Quebec yesterday when he pulled into a truck stop in North Carolina to fill his tank with diesel. The price: $3.999 a gallon... Klass said that a cross-country trip that cost about $550 in 1999 now costs almost four times as much. He said he recently drove from Kent, Wash., to Orlando and paid $1,993.48 for fuel... But truckers said the surcharge can't rise fast enough these days... Some analysts said diesel prices may rise over the long term, too, because of structural reasons. More and more Americans are driving cars that use diesel because they get better mileage. And while the number of diesel cars in the United States remains modest compared with those that run on gasoline, U.S. gasoline use may be leveling off or even declining slightly. At the same time, European drivers use diesel fuel almost exclusively. That could squeeze refiners who can change only slightly the proportion of diesel produced from a barrel of crude oil... Tesoro's Westfall had a different explanation for the recent run-up in prices, however. He said unusually cold weather in Japan, Europe and the United States had boosted demand for heating oil, which is essentially the same product as diesel... Whatever the reason, the rising pump prices are hurting truckers like Klass and Hughes. "I'm breaking even," Hughes said. "I'm not living; I'm surviving."...
* $4 diesel has small business truckers dipping into reserves
Grain Valley,MO,USA -Land Line Magazine, by Clarissa Kell-Holland -March 11, 2008: -- The news that the price for a gallon of diesel fuel is soaring above $4 in some parts of the country forecasts a dire situation for truck drivers. Some truckers have had to dip into their reserves to help cover their daily operating costs, while others, without the luxury of having any reserves, are barely hanging on... OOIDA member and produce hauler DuWayne Marshall of Watertown, WI, told on Tuesday, March 11, he’s “pretty nervous” about the increasing fuel prices – he’s seeing it out in California now, where the price was $4.05 a gallon in Hesperia... He said he has heard from some drivers who don’t have the financial reserves to help them survive the increasing fuel costs that have left truck drivers stunned in recent months... ProMiles is reporting today that the average diesel fuel prices are averaging more than $4 a gallon in five northeastern states, including Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island...
Labels: fuel costs troubles
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