Sunday, August 03, 2008
By ERIC APALATEGUI for The ColumbianIn the trucking industry of old - even as recently as a few years ago - the recipe for making money was hauling as much freight as you possibly could as fast as you could.

Today, that’s a recipe for financial ruin, said Bill Gulick recently, when diesel fuel averaged $4.65 per gallon nationally and more in California. Gulick is president of Gulick Trucking Co. in Vancouver and Portland.

“You have to have reasonable fuel mileage in the equation with volume. If you don’t deal with (fuel efficiency), it’s a problem. Either you change or you’re not going to make it.”

Now truckers have a new ally in the push to increase fuel economy. Cascade Sierra Solutions, a two-year-old Oregon-based nonprofit organization, offers fuel-saving and emissions-cutting devices and strategies through low-interest loans (repaid with fuel savings), government grants and tax incentives. CSS recently opened an outreach center next to the Jubitz Travel Center in the Delta Park area of north Portland, where it also will serve Clark County and Southwest Washington truckers. (more…)

American Trucking Association and allies target proposed truck operation mandatesLOS ANGELES - 07/31/08 - Two major trucking industry groups have filed suit in US District Court challenging proposed plans crafted by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to implement cleaner trucks by forcing drivers to purchase and maintain their own vehicles.

According to media reports, the Virginia-based The American Trucking Associations (ATA) and its affiliate, the Intermodal Motor Carriers Conference (IMCC), are asserting that the proposed “Concession Plans will limit access to the ports to only those trucking companies that have entered into concession contracts approved by the port program administrator.”

The suit also names the Long Beach Harbor Commission as a defendant. (more…)

Last update: 5:29 p.m. EDT July 30, 2008

ARLINGTON, Va., July 30, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ — A top trucking official along with a professional truck driver today urged the Bush Administration and Congress to implement a comprehensive energy plan that will ensure an affordable supply of oil and limit the effect of rising fuel costs on the U.S. economy.
Speaking at a press conference hosted by Senator Mitch McConnell and the Republican Leadership, Barbara Windsor, President and CEO of Hahn Transportation of New Market, Md., said the United States needs a comprehensive energy plan that decreases demand for fossil fuels, increases domestic energy production and ensures transparency in the petroleum markets.

“This is a big problem that requires a big solution,” Windsor said. “Trucking delivers America. Trucks transport virtually 100 percent of groceries, medicine, clothing, appliances and even the fuel that’s pumped at the local gas station. Rising fuel prices not only hurt the trucking industry, but the entire American economy.” (more…)

Friday, July 25, 2008

By: Joan Garrett- Chattanooga Times Free Press

It was not a job his dad could brag about to his friends. There wouldn’t be a white-picket fence or neighborhood barbecues. If he had children, he wouldn’t be there when they took their first steps.

But at 20 years old, Donald Cook didn’t care.

He wanted to be a truck driver. He wanted to live life truck-stop-to-truck-stop and put his eyes on all the country in between.

“It was up to me. I had control, said Mr. Cook, a driver for J.B. Hunt out of Jacksonville, Florida. “I was drawn to the coast-to-coast (drive), the traveling.”

Thirty years later, Mr. Cook, now 50, sat in a musty drivers’ lounge off Interstate 85 in Greenville, S.C., and spoke about lost miles. In the last six months, his familiar 2,800-mile to 3,100-mile cross-country routes have been shortened by more than 1,000 miles and his paycheck is less than what he earned 15 years ago.

“I have lost all the love I had for trucking,” he said. “I am sick of it. You are not seeing the U.S. like you used to.” (more…)

Los Angeles Times News BriefingMayor Antonio Villaraigosa signed a law Thursday that will phase out the use of exhaust-spewing diesel trucks carrying cargo from the Port of Los Angeles, part of a larger $1.6-billion clean-air initiative that will affect more than 17,000 older diesel trucks.

“This is the most aggressive effort to clean up the air at a port anywhere in the world,” Villaraigosa said at a City Hall news conference.

“Today, Angelenos can rest assured their children will breath easier and so will their grandchildren,” he said.

The law requires independent truck drivers serving the port to become employees of trucking companies and bans independent contractors. (more…)

By KEVIN JONES
The Trucker Staff6/25/2008

WASHINGTON - Called to Washington to testify about the impact of market speculation on the price of fuel, a trucking industry leader didn’t give congressmen a lot of global finance ‘why’, but did give plenty of ‘what-for’ when it comes to struggling truckers.

Maverick USA Chairman and CEO Steve Williams told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Monday that his company didn’t make a profit in 2007 - the first red ink in its 27 years. And the culprit is the soaring cost of diesel.

Maverick’s fuel bill increased by $12 million from 2006 to 2007, and between the sagging economy and tough freight pricing, the company had to absorb the cost increases. If the current diesel price remains constant for the rest of 2008, the fuel bill for his 1,500 vehicle flatbed fleet will increase from $67 million last year to $115 million, up 72 percent, he reported. (more…)

05:57 PM PDT on Wednesday, June 25, 2008By CHRIS DANIELS / KING 5 News

KENT, Wash. - A handful of trucking companies believe someone is behind a major fuel heist in South King County using stolen fuel cards.

The spree has racked up nearly $100,000 in charges.

Jolyn Hamilton knew there was trouble back in April. Surveillance video shows a strange red jeep making the rounds of her Puyallup trucking company on consecutive days, followed by a break-in.

Her gas card was among the valuables stolen and used almost immediately on a fueling spree.

“We got a fax showing the card has been used and had been used extensively,” said Hamilton.

Her gas account was guzzled again just a few days ago and she’s now lost more than $5,000 on illegal purchases. (more…)

By Grant Smith and Christian SchmollingerJune 26 (Bloomberg) — Crude oil fell for a second day after a report yesterday showed U.S. fuel demand dropped to the lowest since January 2007 as record prices limited purchases.

The upward price trend of oil could ease in the years ahead as U.S. gasoline use may have peaked in 2007, Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates, told a congressional panel yesterday. Consumption for the week to June 20 slipped 5 percent from its peak of 21.3 million barrels a day on Jan. 4, data from the Energy Department shows.

“Until now declines in demand have been modest, but yesterday’s data showed high prices hitting home,” said Robert Laughlin, senior broker at MF Global Ltd. in London. “Refiners aren’t holding excess supplies, perhaps because their data indicates sales dropping further.”

Crude oil for August delivery fell as much as 87 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $133.68 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It was at $134.10 a barrel at 8:48 a.m. London time. (more…)

BY SCOTT ANDRON - THE MIAMI HERALD
sandron@MiamiHerald.comIf you think that filling up your car is expensive, just be glad you don’t have a 240-gallon tank and a vehicle that gets five miles to the gallon.

With diesel prices at record highs, Miami-based Ryder System is offering a new high-tech tool to help its customers save fuel.

The product, called RydeSmart, is one of several on the market that enables customers to instantly track the fuel consumption, idle time, speed and other vital statistics of every truck in their fleets.

Is Bill the Driver going too fast? Managers back at the office will know immediately, and can contact him and point it out.

Is he leaving the truck to idle too long while it’s stationary? The device can automatically turn the ignition off after a preset number of minutes.

It may even have safety benefits: The device’s software can be programmed to alert managers to patterns of repeated, sudden changes in speed — a sign that the driver may be tailgating.

RydeSmart is a part of the latest generation of GPS devices, which have been used in trucking for years, said Steve Sturgess, executive editor of Heavy Duty Trucking magazine and an observer of the industry for more than three decades. (more…)

The Press Association

6/9/08

Hard-pressed drivers were offered a glimmer of good news as diesel prices dropped for the first time in nearly nine months.

According to the AA, the average pump price of the fuel fell marginally over the weekend from 130.09p to 130.07p a litre.

It is the first drop since the end of the motoring season last September, the motoring organisation said, and comes in the wake of a 10% drop in wholesale diesel prices over the past two weeks.

Prices per metric tonne fell from 1,346 US dollars a tonne on May 23 to 1,204 dollars on June 4, with the resumption of diesel production at three major European refineries cited for the fall. (more…)