Sen. Jesse Helms dies at 86
Spotted at the Cityfolk Festival
July 4th celebrations nationwide
Truckers throttle back their big rigs
With diesel fuel prices at more than $4 a gallon, trucking industry reduces speed to save money.
Monday, March 24, 2008
FRANKLIN — When Debra Turner hits the nation's highways with her puppy, Sophie, her truck goes a little slower than it once did.
Her company, US Xpress, has set the electronic speed governors on its trucks down to 66 mph from 70 mph, she said, and has told drivers to fill up only at Pilot and Love's truck stops, where the prices are lower.
Extras
Photos
It's all part of a nationwide effort by the trucking industry to improve gas mileage as diesel fuel prices have soared to more than $4 a gallon in many places.
According to the federal Energy Department, diesel prices hit a national average of $3.97 a gallon on March 17, up $1.29 from a year ago. The jump is being attributed to record crude oil prices and strong global demand.
The price of diesel Saturday, March 22, was $4.07.9 cash and $413.9 credit at Pilot Truck Center off Interstate 75 at Ohio 123 in Franklin. Truckers interviewed there said rising fuel costs are hurting truckers, especially owner-operators who hire out their services.
Arthur Browne of Hamilton is an owner-operator who drives for Mayflower, the moving company. He said the drivers get a fuel surcharge that's paid by the customer and passed along to the drivers. The surcharge has increased over time, but "it isn't going up fast enough, because it (diesel fuel) has gone up 30 percent in the last six weeks."
Browne said he has long tried to be fuel-efficient, driving 65 mph even in states where the speed limit is 75 mph. He gets six or seven miles to the gallon in his tractor-trailer rig.
"If I've got a good, heavy load, (the surcharge) will cover most of it," he said.
Trucker Ray Flanary of Abilene, Texas, said rising fuel prices caused him to sell some trucks he owned, stop being an owner-operator and go to work for Koch Trucking Inc. of Minneapolis. He said he's noticed truckers slowing down to save fuel.
Flanary said he sold out three or four years ago because fuel prices had eroded his income to about a third of what it was when he became an owner-operator around 1999.
"Now I'm a company driver and (paying for fuel) is my company's responsibility, but I still worry about it," he said. It makes him angry that oil companies are enjoying record profits when fuel prices are driving up the cost of food and other consumer goods.
"You don't do anything without a truck," Flanary said. "You don't eat, you don't have food, you don't have energy, you don't have anything without a truck. It affects everybody."
