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FUEL COST TROUBLES * Canada & USA - TRUCKERS' STORIES
* Canada - Trucking companies struggle with fuel costs
Prince Albert,Canada -The Principe Albert Daily Herald, by MOHSIN ABBAS -22 June 2008: -- ... Dozens of trucking companies risk closing if the federal government doesn't create a rebate program to mitigate the soaring price of fuel, the Canadian Teamsters union warned last week... It called on the government to use budget surpluses to assist the transport industry... The practice already exists provincially, the Teamsters said. For example, Quebec gives independent drivers protection against rising gas and fuel costs, it said... According to transportation experts across the country, the price of fuel imposes a perilous cost on trucking companies, brokers and owner-operators... Said Diane Lavoie, the owner of Knight Courier in Prince Albert, "So it would not be long to see the trucking companies closing down over growing fuel prices."... (Photo by Mohsin Abbas - Prince Albert truck driver Mike Podborochynski can remember buying fuel for 25 cents a gallon)* USA - Diesel prices driving independent truckers broke
Seattle,WASH,USA -AP/Seattle Post Intelligencer, by DAN CATCHPOLE -June 23, 2008: -- Independent trucker Fletcher Mack owns a white Freightliner with his name stenciled in green on the door. These days he's reaching deeper into his pocket for fuel. With the price of diesel rising fast and more drivers chasing less freight, he sees a bleak financial future for himself and thousands like him across the country... His income is slightly below the national average income of $41,000 for an owner-operator, according to the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association... Around nine percent of the nation's 3.4 million truck drivers are independent owner-operators, according to the Department of Labor... Adding to the problem is a surplus of drivers and trucks. Since Mack got into trucking in 2001, the number of people with commercial drivers licenses in Washington has increased from about 170,000 to more than 203,000... Like many independent drivers, Mack has been cutting costs. The truck's oil gets changed every 15,000 miles instead of every 10,000, and he and his girlfriend have trimmed their household expenses... Larger companies can park older - and less safe - trucks, but smaller companies and independent drivers have to drive regardless, Erik Backman, owner of Freight Expeditors, Inc., said... Mack said, "How long is it going to be until I'm broke? I know that it's basically inevitable." ... But for now, he's unwilling to give up the life... (Photo by JOHN TULLY/The Washington Times - Truckers line the umps at the Flying J off US-81 north of Winchester, Va., late one evening)* USA - Independent truckers fume as costs rise: Diesel prices. Toll roads. Maintenance fees. Insurance payments. Dispatcher charges.
Washington,DC,USA -The Washington Times, by W.J. Hennigan -June 23, 2008: -- Sitting behind the wheel of his big rig, Sean Russell looks calm, cool and collected. But inside, he's tied in knots. He knows that in the past year, hundreds of small- to mid-sized trucking outfits have folded under the pressure of these costs. He doesn't want to be next... "If you don't make the stop, you fall behind," Mr. Russell said. "And if you fall behind, you don't get paid on time. And without money, there's no gas to keep this thing going."... As owner and operator of God Works trucking, Mr. Russell has crisscrossed the country in his 18-wheeler with his girlfriend, Mary Carter, and her two children, Justin, 8, and Heather, 14, who just got out of school for summer break. He not only enjoys their company, Ms. Carter also holds a commercial driver's license, meaning fewer stops and more loads... Mr. Russell knows their pain. He and other haulers aren't paid back for the fuel they use until weeks after they've completed their runs. So, Mr. Russell could be driving for weeks before the broker who tells him where to go pays him. Even when he does get paid, he doesn't know what kind of surcharges will be taken out of his check. The instability puts him on edge. It adds up after a while, he says... According to Sean Russell, owner and operator of God Works trucking, he has not been to his Past Christian, Miss., home in seven months... All his waking hours are spent driving and his breaks are spent sleeping while his girlfriend drives, until the next shift... In Braintree, Mass., Russell talks with his dispatcher on the phone, finding out he will be heading to New Hampshire to Pennsylvania and later onto Chicago... The problem for Mr. Russell - other than the monumental dieselprices - is the unforeseeables, he says. Like when he took his rig to a mechanic for a regular oil change a few weeks ago. Other than the $300 price tag, the oil change seemed innocent enough. But the mechanic failed to put the dipstick back properly... Oblivious to the mechanic's mistake, Mr. Russell drove from southern to northern Pennsylvania and burned through four gallons of oil. When Mr. Russell found out what was wrong, he pulled over and filled the oil tank up, but it cost him... 
The delay pushed him back a few hours. And the lost hours caused Mr. Russell to be late to unload aluminum coils at Basic Metals Inc. in Germantown, Wis... The metal company had already closed up for the weekend. So, Mr. Russell and the family decided to make the most of it and visited nearby Chicago until the business opened on Monday morning... A simple mistake knocked the truck off schedule three days, he says. Now he's scampering to make up lost time and get back on track... Lately, another unforeseen delay - bad weather - has been hampering business. Mass flooding, heavy rains and winds that "could blow you straight off the road" are dangerous, Mr. Russell says... But so is waiting it out... If the storm is bad enough, it could mean losing a day or two. Going around it would cost too much in fuel. So pressing on is often the best option. "You never now how bad it's going to be until you're in it," Mr. Russell says. "Then you make a decision."... 
However, he's lucky enough, he says, because he travels with his family and takes turns driving with Ms. Carter. Yet they rarely stop - except to unload... "It gets tiring because we're driving straight through," Mr. Russell says, "but, financially, it's the only way we're going to make it - if we make it at all."..(Photos by John Tully/ The Washington Times - 1 · · Mr. Russell knows their pain - 2 · Mary Carter, center, walks with her children Heather, 14, and son Justin, 8, back to board the truck after a break before heading back on the road to Pennsylvania from New Hampshire. Carter and Russell will be traveling with Carter's children for a month this summer. "It's affecting money we could send home to help the kids. To put food in their stomachs and clothes on them. To give them a life," Russell said about the rising cost of diesel and having to juggle their daily expenses - 3 · Mary Carter helps Sean Russell eat lunch while on the road in Massachusetts. "I don't see how solos are making it. Solo drivers. I don't see how they're doing it. We're barely making it and we're teaming," said Mary Carter)Labels: fuel cost troubles
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