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Aug 30, 2008

Empty Mile Fuel Surcharge * USA - Trucking company implements new policy to pay for

With fuel prices still above the $4 mark, Daily Express Inc. has started offering a program to help owner-operators offset their fuel costs by offering to pay them for their empty miles

Carlisle,PA,USA -Land Line Magazine -August 29, 2008: -- ... Todd Long, president and chief financial officer of Daily Express, headquartered in Carlisle, PA, told Land Line earlier this summer that the company decided to implement this empty mile fuel surcharge policy because they understand that high fuel costs are a huge burden for owner-operators to bear right now... “We view this as an opportunity to help our owner-operators out right now as fuel prices continue to force so many out of trucking business,” he said. “By paying deadhead miles, maybe we can help relieve some of their stress and make things a little easier for them”... He said the empty fuel surcharge payment is based on the loaded miles the load owner-operators are hauling, not the actual empty miles to the next load. When customers provide the company with backhaul freight, the empty mile fuel surcharge will not apply, nor will it apply on loads to the Midwest states of Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Missouri... (Photo: Daily Express Inc.'s headquarter in Carlisle,PA)

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May 2, 2008

FUEL SURCHARGES * USA - Now the Norm

Virtually every freight company in Canada now uses fuel surcharges to account for volatile high energy prices

Calgary,ALB,CAN -The Calgary Herald, by Dan Healing -May 01, 2008: -- ... It's an item that anyone who sends freight, from the corner liquor store to the multinational electronics chain, finds tacked on to their bill and one which often results in higher costs to consumers... "They don't have a choice because the fuel prices have gone up quickly enough they have not been able to . . . include it in their rate quotes," said Mayne Root, executive director of the Calgary-based Alberta Motor Transport Association... AMTA represents 14,000 trucking firms, from one-man operators to industry leaders such as Mullen Transportation Inc... Root said fuel surcharges change as often as the fuel price does and as unexpectedly. It's impossible to say what an average surcharge is because that depends on when base rates were set and the deal the trucking firm was able to make with its fuel supplier... Root added surcharges are not necessarily a good solution to fuel price hikes -- in theory they cover off the trucking firm's extra costs, but the reality is that a big customer can often negotiate a better rate...

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Apr 20, 2008

FUEL SURCHARGES * USA - Diesel prices fuel trucker angst

Cost pressure is straining relationships between truckers and freight brokers and driving up prices for groceries, clothes and other goods

St. Peters,MO,USA -The St. Charles Journal, by Jeffrey Tomich -20 April 2008: -- For truck driver Jon Montgomery, the surge in the price of diesel is more easily measured in time than money... The pain of runaway fuel prices can be felt everywhere, from the biggest trucking firms to independent owner-operators with a single rig... Trucks move many of the nation's retail products and materials used in construction. And much of that freight is handled by small trucking companies — those with fewer than 60 trucks... Often, the only recourse for trucking firms is to impose fuel surcharges... But fuel surcharges don't cover "deadhead miles"— the distance covered when a trucker drops off a load in one city and hauls back an empty trailer to pick up another. And trucking companies don't recover expenses from time spent idling in traffic or at rest stops... The higher prices are increasing the tension between trucking companies and freight brokers. Truckers complain that brokers aren't passing on all of the fuel surcharges being imposed on shippers, and they've asked Congress to step in... "When that happens, shipped costs go up. Costs to the consumer go up. And the trucker goes out of business," said Todd Spencer, executive vice president of the Owner-Operator Independent Driver Association. "That should be unlawful."...

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Aug 25, 2007

“Collusive Fuel Surcharges” * USA - LTL trucking firms named in federal price fixing lawsuit

Nearly a dozen well-known trucking companies, including YRC Worldwide, Con-Way and UPS, have been named in a lawsuit claiming that they colluded to fix shipping rates through fuel surcharges since 2003

CAL,USA -Land Line Magazine (Grain Valley,MO) -August 24, 2007: -- ... The federal suit, which is seeking class-action status, was filed by Farm Water Technological Services in the U.S. District Court for Southern California... The suit names 11 less-than-truckload carriers, including other big names such as Arkansas Best and FedEx... According to court documents, the suit claims the carriers used fuel costs as a pretext to impose “collusive fuel surcharges”... The suit claims that the less-than-truckload industry is a heavily consolidated one, and that when fuel prices began to rise, the companies got together and began imposing fuel surcharges... The suit also claims that the companies themselves have acknowledged that higher fuel prices have led to increased profits on the basis of fuel surcharges...

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