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TRUCKING INDUSTRY CRISIS * USA - Kansas companies put out of business by high fuel costs
After more than 40 years in the business, Mike Ross closed his Salina trucking company on July 1
Wichita,KS,USA -The Wichita Eagle, by BECCY TANNER -Aug. 03, 2008: -- ... Tony Gaston cut his Hutchinson fleet from 50 to 26 trucks. Now he is looking at laying off some office staff. Mike Fritch of Burrton went from three trucks to one. Even then, he says, it's touch and go... "It's fuel costs," Fritch said. "Cash flow disappears and fuel costs keep going up... You have to make the decision: Do you buy a new set of tires, find used tires or try to keep running with what you got? I haven't bought new tires since 2002. I'm cutting corners everywhere I can."... Travel down Kansas highways these days and the journey is more solitary -- fewer trucks as well as fewer cars... Nationwide, nearly 1,000 trucking companies failed in the first quarter of this year, parking 42,000 trucks, according to the most recent information available from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. Just less than 2,000 companies closed their doors all of last year...
* Big firms, independent truckers throttle down over fuel costs - Exorbitant diesel fuel prices have left the commercial trucking trade in the midst of a crisis
Memphis,TN,USA -The Memphis Commercial Appeal, by Lisa Kelly Easo -August 3, 2008: -- "Fuel costs are so high that many carriers, specifically owner-operators, are having to park their trucks," said Cliff Lynch, executive vice president of Memphis-based CTSI, a logistics technology provider to the transportation industry... Filling up a typical tractor-trailer has increased 220 percent, or $950, in the last five years, according to the American Trucking Associations. As a result, some carriers have left the market while others have reduced fleet sizes, said ATA chief economist Bob Costello in a prepared statement... He said these trends are likely to continue in the near term, affecting both large and small motor carriers as well as drivers... Larger firms such as Schneider National are able to weather the storm via improved technology and logistics as well as volume buying, but many smaller trucking companies have been forced into bankruptcy, said Dan Van Alstine, senior vice president and general manager of Schneider's van truckload division... (Photo: The increase in fuel costs has been felt especially hard by truck firms and drivers, including Levell Alexander, of Schneider National) * Minnesota’s truckers fight to stay ahead with fuel prices soaring
St. Cloud,MN,USA -The St. Cloud Times, by Charles Pulliam -August 2, 2008: -- ... “Trucking is the backbone of the Minnesota economy,” said John Hausladen, president of the Minnesota Trucking Association. Seven out of 10 communities in the state don’t have any other modes of transportation to move goods, he said... Minnesota trucks move 68 percent of the products in and out of the state’s communities, and more than 177,000 people are employed through the trucking industry, according to the MTA... “Everything you get, there is a truck involved,” said longtime trucker Mel Luebesmier, a life-long St. Cloud resident. “I don’t care if it’s a bag of peanuts and even if it did come in by rail, the trucks still moved it to its final destination.”As for Mel, he pays for fuel out of his own pocket, totaling in the thousands each week. He is a trucker who doesn’t receive a fuel surcharge because he hauls whatever he can find in the region, to stay close to home. The major headache comes from trying to plan ahead by setting aside money to pay for future fill-ups before actually doing the driving, he said... “Mel can hold his head above water, but it’s getting worse and getting to the point where you might as well shut her down" ... (Times photo by Kimm Anderson - Semitrailers and other vehicles take a long curve through Sauk Rapids on Tuesday in this view from the Fifth Street overpass on U.S. Highway 10. Some truckers are paying as much as $1,000 each time they fill their gas tanks)
Labels: trucking industry crisis
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