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CONGRESSMEN COMMENTARY * USA - Trucking industry hit by rising diesel fuel costs
By U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, DFL-8th District, to the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s, which he chairs, Subcommittee on Highways and Transit
Bemidji,MN,USA -The Bemidji Pioneer -May 08, 2008: -- I am pleased that the Subcommittee on Highways and Transit is holding this important hearing to shed light on the reasons behind ever-escalating prices for gasoline and diesel fuel, and the tremendous impact this continues to have on the trucking industry, its drivers, consumers and our national economy... The price of both gasoline and diesel are currently at an all-time high. Consumers, who are squeezed by having to pay $3.61 per gallon at the pump, are hit again with escalating costs for food and other basic consumer goods, in part due to the rising costs of getting these goods to market... The men and women in the trucking industry who bring these goods to market are also facing situations that were unimaginable just a few years ago. The cost of a gallon of diesel fuel has risen 48 percent in the past year; 78 percent in the last three years; and 166 percent since 2003... Every 1-cent increase in the price of diesel fuel translates to an annual additional cost of $391 million to the trucking industry. It costs nearly $800 more for a driver to fill a standard tractor-trailer than five years ago... High diesel prices have also brought into sharp focus fuel surcharges in the motor carrier industry. Today’s hearing will examine the relationship among motor carriers, brokers, shippers and independent drivers with respect to setting and collecting fuel surcharges. Currently, fuel surcharges are left to the discretion of an individual motor carrier or broker arranging for transportation, with few disclosure requirements and without any government oversight... This lack of transparency affects independent owner-operators and drivers who often do not control if, and what amount, a broker or motor carrier charges a shipper for the rising cost of fuel. This makes it very difficult for drivers to verify whether the fuel surcharge is being passed through. When it is not, drivers are nonetheless the ones stuck paying the higher price at the pump...
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