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FUEL COST TROUBLES * USA - Prices raising questions about trucking’s future
Seventy percent of the nation’s freight tonnage is transported on trucks on the nation’s highways. And there are more than 350,000 independent diesel-powered tractor-trailer operators in the USA
Florence,South Carolina,USA -The South Carolina Now, by Candace Jarrett -May 28, 2008: -- The soaring price of diesel fuel — more than $4.60 a gallon from $2.50 a year ago — has stripped the profit from hauling and raised concerns regarding the trucking industry’s future... “It’s breaking the trucking industry,” said Lee Riding, a driver for Denton, N.C.-based Furr Transport. “The two biggest costs associated with trucking have always been fuel and wages. It used to cost more to pay the trucker, but now it cost more to fuel the truck.”... Billy “The Trailer Man” Lowe, who has a trailer business in Darlington, said independent trucking eventually will become a thing of the past. He said large carriers — such as J.B. Hunt, Yellow Freight and others with fleets in the thousands — have a much longer reach than small truckers... “You don’t see a lot of trucks driving around now without a name on it like a Wal-Mart or something,” he said. “Those independents that are hauling for hire can’t make it.”... Frankie Perkins, owner of Perkins Transfer Service on West Lucas Street in Florence said, truck drivers are at the point where they have to park their trucks... “The trucker has to think about how much money he’ll make after he puts fuel in the truck,” he said. “Trucks have 200-gallon to 300-gallon tanks and you multiply that by the average price of a gallon of fuel, $4.75. Then you take freight cost, at about $1.80 per mile, to carry the load, with only a 60-cent surcharge, and see what the trucker’s making.”... (Photo by Angela E. Kershner/Morning News - Kenneth Barnes of Darlington returns from a run to Newark, N.C., for PB Express based in Cleveland as he fills his truck Wednesday at the Pilot station on West Lucas Street in Florence)Labels: fueld cost troubles
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