THURSDAY, MARCH 6, 2008
Independent Truckers Threatened by Fuel Prices, Economy
Independent truckers, those people who own the trucks they drive, are threatened from every side. Diesel fuel prices, fewer loads and increased competition may drive some owner operators to park their rigs and sell out.
The U.S. Department of
Energy reported the diesel prices
rose again to an average of $3.658 last week, shattering the
previous week's record by more than 10 cents per gallon.
AP reports:
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Trucking's owner-operators, the self-employed
drivers who haul everything from Hummers to hay, are suffering. Many
say they're running on the edge of bankruptcy, about to disappear
unless they get help. While a wave of trucking failures now might be
invisible to consumers, when the economy rebounds, it would push up
shipping rates, helping increase prices.
The
housing downturn and decreased consumer spending have cut into loads;
the extra trucking capacity is pushing down freight rates. Diesel
prices, which are always higher in the winter, have hit such highs that
Truckinginfo.com runs ads for thief-stopping fuel-tank locks.
"If
you can run all week without a flat tire, you're a little bit ahead,
otherwise, you're basically just running to put the money right back
into the fuel tank," said trucker Benjamin Stanley, 40, of
Spotsylvania, Va. "Truckers are in the same spot farmers were in a few
years back."
Reposessor Nassau Asset Management repossessed 110 percent more trucks in 2007
than it did in 2006, according to president Edward Castagna. And it's
taking less time to pick up a truck, which he sees as a sign that
there's less work to keep them on the road — and out of his
reposessors' reach.
"It used to take weeks, now it takes days or hours," he said.
Industries
that depend on independent truckers, like logging, are starting to
suffer. Maine Gov. John Baldacci declared a civil emergency at the end
of November, speeding fuel tax reimbursements for logging truck
operators and asking the Department of Transportation to identify roads
that could tolerate logging-truck weight, allowing truckers to take
more direct routes and save fuel.
About
nine percent of the nation's 3.4 million truck drivers are independent
owner-operators, according to the Department of Labor. Without the
independents, trucking will turn into a group of "regional and national
oligopolies" that would send shipping prices higher when the economy
improves, said John Saldanha, who teaches logistics at Ohio State
University.
Posted at 1:00:00 AM
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