Truckers Struggling With Rising Diesel Costs

[Robbien]

Source: WLOX

Independent truck driver Antonio Turner says the gas pump is the most dreaded stop of his day.

. . .

Local truck driver Timmy McCool says, "A lot of people can't afford it. People have to park their trucks. It's hard to make a living, you know, when the gas prices are that high. It's unreal."

For Independent Truck Drivers, it's especially hard when that large tab comes from your own pocket. Usually, they'll have to fill up every two days. Turner says, "If you don't get a good run, paying top dollar money, then you ain't make nothing that week."

The manager of an interstate truck stop cited everything from Wall Street to the War in Iraq as reasons for the price hike. He says he tries to keep costs down by trucking in fuel from the Chevron refinery, only 7 miles away.

. . .

If fuel prices continue to rise, these truckers fears you'll see more empty diesel pumps. Turner says, "I'd think about parkin it!"

Read more: http://www.wlox.com/Global/story.asp?S=7275672&nav=6DJI

[ixion]

1. It costs me forty bucks to fill up my Camry

I would have to have to fill up an 18 wheeler.

[onehandle]

2. Vote Republican. Vote for war. Vote for high oil prices. nt

[dickbearton]

4. Exactly. Not all, but to many independents, were the clowns that voted for the Criminal Bush.

[Beerboy]

16. How do you know? It doesn't seem likely;

these folks actually work for a living.
Then again, maybe you're in a position to know if you're connected w/ the industry and talk politics w/ the people you work with.
I'm sure those truckers hauling fraudulent voting machines will be well compensated though.

[shenmue]

14. That pretty much sums it up.

:(

[skids]

3. Maybe HFI will get more attention now?

http://chechfi.ca/sotesti.htm

[DavidMS]

5. We are seeing the end o an era.

On the bright side, high fuel costs are causing reduced fuel consumption (200,000 barrels less imported this year, IIRC) and encouraging conservation and greater efficiency. More goods will move by ship, barge and train. I wonder if most railways would benefit from building wind turbines and buying copper (for carbon neutral electrification), they will make a killing as fuel prices rise and carbon trading is implemented. I just don't see highway movement of goods over long distances remaining viable. Another advantage could be towards traditional industrial era models of development (population, industry and transportation increasingly urban and at high densities since energy is more expensive).

[Gregorian]

6. I think so. And what an era it was.

All of the things we should have been doing, we will now be forced to do. And uncomfortably.

I don't like predicting. But as far out as I thought my thinking was, thirty years ago, it is finally seeming like it was rational.

But we have a big problem. We're dependent. And we've lost what we had. I'm thinking agriculture and community. But things change slowly. So I guess we'll see how it all turns out. I just fear that it's going to get ugly. I mean in a pinch, we'll turn to coal and nuclear. And for a while that may work out. But not for that long distance transportation. Not unless we spend our military money on things like battery technology.

I always thought that the goal was to create a good life that future generations would be able to take advantage of. Not a Kamikaze end run. Not hot tubs and VCR's. And cars. And a large population.

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. Not bloody likely.

More goods will move by ship, barge and train. I wonder if most railways would benefit from building wind turbines and buying copper (for carbon neutral electrification), they will make a killing as fuel prices rise and carbon trading is implemented. I just don't see highway movement of goods over long distances remaining viable.

I have seen this sentiment expressed many times on DU but it seems to exclude one very important reality: There is not a rail siding or a canal behind every grocery distribution center in the country, much less behind your local food market. The same is the case with most business these days.

The fact is, shipping by rail is only truly cost effective when you have a large amount of product going to the same place, in particular if time in transit is a major consideration. This is the case with container shipping as well. A train leaving the LA basin full of shipping containers fresh off a ship at the Port of LA/Long Beach is essentially going to the same place; a switching yard where the rail cars are sorted into other trains also going to the same place. There is no way that a shipment of a load of Strawberries from Oxnard can make it to Chicago faster on a train than via truck. The same is true for almost everything except large, bulk shipments like coal, for instance. Even users of Piggyback rail transport are sacrificing time for efficiency. A freight trailer leaving Ontario, CA. (or anywhere else) hauled by an over-the-road tractor will beat its counterpart loaded on a rail car to its destination every single time, REGARDLESS of destination. The overwhelming majority of freight that can stand - from an economic standpoint - shipment by rail or water is already shipped that way.

It also should be noted that it is impossible to ship across the country using the same carrier anything via railroad. There is not one single railroad company in this country that operates coast to coast. Not one. Yes, you can get a rail car from the west coast to the east coast, but it will have to switch locomotive operators at least once, if not twice or three times, depending on final destination.

[localroger]

7. Transportation costs will rise

These independents are the backbone of a lot of our infrastructure. They're poorly paid and regarded with contempt by those who hire them. But if they stop driving, the gears will stop turning.

[OzarkDem]

11. As will the price of everything they haul

Rising fuel prices are the quickest way to inflation, bar none.

[ClintonTyree]

17. Which makes the government's formula....

for determining inflation totally ludicrous. Fuel and food, two of the top expenditures by the American family, are NOT included in the government's formula for the nation's inflationary index. Three guesses as to why that is, the first two don't count.

Does anyone want to hazard a guess what the inflationary index would be INCLUDING fuel and food? :shrug: Perhaps THAT would get the Stock Market's attention, 'ya think?

[johncoby2]

8. Uh...like DUH!

When did they wake up?

Shoot....when did WE wake up?

[JBear]

9. So tell me....

If this is hurting them so badly, why are they not out in the streets protesting?

It is disheartening to see the trucking industry scream about a few cents tax on fuel and not about this government's policies that brought us $3/gal diesel.

:bounce:

[Kingofalldems]

10. Why can't they pull themselves up by their own bootstraps?

Like George W. Bush did.

[havocmom]

12. Hurting farmers too. If the farmers & truckers are hurting, so will each of us

Food costs... to the moon, Alice.

[shenmue]

13. It's jacking up the price of everything.

:(

[Beerboy]

15. I'm pretty sure it's Clinton's fault.

[TalkingDog]

18. Look for much higher prices near you.

Think about every item you buy from the grocery that is from some other part of the country or continent.

Those prices are all going to rise even more sharply in the coming weeks.

Gas prices can shoot through the roof and not affect the price of goods. Diesel...not so much.



My Favorite Master Artist: Karen Parker GhostWoman Studios

[Javaman]

20. The oil we eat...

they oil we wear...

the oil we drink...

the oil we breath...

the oil we drive...

oil goes up, everything goes up.

if there is to be a revolution in this nation, oil will be the fuse.

[riverdeep]

21. I hate to say this,

but an American's days of long-haul trucking are most likely over. Same as their days of picking fruit were over. They may tough out this price spike, but with the recent decision to give Mexico's truckers open access to U.S. roadways, it's a matter of time before Mexicans become the main nationality of truck drivers because they will be the only ones that can afford it.

Race to the bottom.