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FUEL COSTS TROUBLES * WORLDWIDE - Soaring fuel prices have yet to dent demand for freight transport
* UK - Britain has become the latest country to experience public protests over fuel prices, with truck drivers yesterday (May 27) blocking major roads into London with their vehicles
London,UK -Transport Intelligence -28 May 2008: -- Trade bodies representing that country's road freight industry are urging the government to cut the tax on diesel. The British International Freight Association, for example, is demanding the abolition of a planned 2p (£0.02) increase in fuel duty this October and the introduction of an "essential user rebate". Britain has some of the most expensive fuel in the world, with prices now over US$9 a gallon... Public protests against fuel prices have also occurred in countries where fuel is cheaper than in Britain. In France, for instance, the government seems to be reacting to demonstrations by contemplating a reduction in VAT (sales tax) after fishermen blockaded French ports. That sort of action is thought likely to be about to occur elsewhere in Europe...* USA - Soaring Fuel Prices Take a Withering Toll on Truckers
New York,NY,USA -The New York Times, by LOUIS UCHITELLE -May 27, 2008: -- ... If diesel prices do not decline and make that side of the business viable, Jesse Hendley of eastern Georgia says, he will have to sell his trucks, or try to sell them. That is just what thousands of other truckers are doing as they shed used rigs in what appears to be the biggest shakeout since trucking was deregulated in 1980... The squeeze on truckers’ profits from rising fuel costs is compounded by the slowing economy, which is reducing freight traffic. Truckers say they find it hard to impose fuel surcharges, in part because their industry has suffered for years from over-capacity as deregulation drew thousands of small operators into trucking... Still, 70 percent of the nation’s freight tonnage moves over the highways on trucks, much of it in the diesel-powered tractor-trailers of the nation’s 350,000 independent operators, each with a fleet of up to five vehicles, one usually driven by the proprietor. Profit margins, notoriously thin in good times, are minuscule now, and each rise in fuel prices pushes more truckers into the red... More than 45,000 vehicles, or 3 percent of the tractor fleet, have disappeared from the highways since early last year, according to America’s Commercial Transportation Research in Columbus, Ind.... That surpasses the last great shakeout, in the early 1980s, when deregulation, along with a recession, high interest rates and the second Arab oil embargo, took out 33,000 tractors... John Seibert, a research analyst at the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, whose members includes as many of the protesters, said the drivers “think that government should not permit a situation in which the market does not pay them for their work.” He added, “It would seem that they are demanding a return to some form of regulation.”... (Picture by Tami Chappell for The New York Times - Jesse Hendley with trucks he owns near his home in Millen, Ga. He says he will sell his trucks if fuel prices do not fall)* USA - Tough times for truckers
Meriden,CT,USA -The Meriden Record-Journal, by Jason R. Vallee -26 May 2008: -- ... when he first started working in trucking a little more than 20 years ago, he would drive to the Berlin Turnpike to buy wholesale diesel fuel at 99 cents per gallon... Just last week, Brysh went to his wholesale distributor and found prices had spiked to more than $4.40 per gallon... Michael J. Riley, president of the Motor Transportation Association of Connecticut, said those prices have risen to $5 in some parts of the state during recent weeks... With no end to the excessive rates in sight, area companies, and particularly independent truckers, are looking for federal assistance to combat the higher costs. If no help is provided, Riley warns, the next action could be picking up the pieces of a shattered economy... These are just the fuel costs. The higher prices have led to closings and bankruptcy filings by independent truckers and small companies... (Photo by Dave Zajac / Record-Journal ) * USA - Fuel prices continue to take their toll; used U.S. trucks exported
New York,NY,USA -The New York Times (see above)/Land Line Magazine -May 27, 2008: -- An article in today’s looks at the impact of fuel prices on truckers... The Times cites a report by America’s Commercial Transportation Research group that says 45,000 tractors, or more than 3 percent of the nation’s tractor fleet, have departed from U.S. highways since early last year. That surpasses the last great shakeout, in the early 1980s, when deregulation – along with a recession, high interest rates and the second Arab oil embargo – took out 33,000 tractors... It also cites a Commerce Department report that says nearly 24,000 used, over-the-road tractors have been exported to other countries in the last year. The weakness of the dollar is one reason more trucks are going abroad. According to the article, many of the trucks end up in Russia, a strong outlet for the used trucks... Thousands of truckers have sold their used rigs because the soaring price of diesel has stripped the profit from hauling... * USA - Truckers grapple with rising diesel prices
West Covina,CA,USA -San Gabriel Valley Tribune , by Kevin Smith -28 May 2008: -- Southern California motorists have been hammered by spiking gasoline prices - prices that have topped $4 per gallon at many stations... But as bad as that's been, trucking companies and independent truckers are facing even worse... On Tuesday, the average price for a gallon of diesel fuel in the Los Angeles/Long Beach region was $5.134, down from Monday's record high of $5.135 per gallon... A month ago, diesel was selling for $4.49 per gallon and a year earlier it was priced at $3.16 per gallon... "Every day it gets worse and worse," said Isidro Lombera, owner of Fast Freight Transportation in Santa Fe Springs. "I'm trying to raise my rates, but most customers won't let you. They want you to keep rates the same. Some of them have gone somewhere else. But if they can't find anything they come back ... then we try to negotiate a price."... JNC Transportation in Baldwin Park has hiked its rates out of necessity, according to owner Jim Cass... Cass' company uses 25 trucks that haul produce destined for export overseas... "I'm passing our cost increases along to customers," he said. "It's a 35 percent increase in delivery costs, but our customers understand perfectly well. I'm actually busier than I've been in a long time. I keep hearing about the economy going bad, but people still have to eat."... Julie Sauls, a spokeswoman for the California Trucking Association, said drivers are getting hit from all sides with increased fees, diverted tax revenues and rapidly escalating diesel prices... "Diesel prices have surpassed labor as the biggest expense for trucking companies," she said. "One of our members said they're seeing voluntary repossessions of equipment. Some drivers just can't afford the cost of fuel."...
* South Korea - High Diesel Prices Hit Merchants
Seoul,S.Korea -The Korea Times, by Kim Hyun-cheol -28 May 2008: --
Labels: fuel costs troubles worldwide
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