|
Truckers are parking vehicles and driving fewer miles as skyrocketing diesel prices push up operating costs, the WSJ Logistics Report’s Liz Young writes in Dow Jones Risk Journal.
About 18% of over 540 trucking companies surveyed last month by DAT Freight & Analytics said they had parked trucks due to the surge in fuel prices because of the Iran war. About 45% said they were driving fewer miles, while 44% said they were avoiding particularly heavy loads that eat up fuel.
Diesel prices have risen sharply since the start of the Iran war. On-highway diesel fuel prices climbed to $5.401 as of March 30, up 39% from the beginning of March and 50% higher than a year earlier, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Large carriers that have contracts with shippers are able to recoup most if not all of the additional cost of diesel by passing fuel surcharges along to customers. But carriers on the spot market, where companies book last-minute transportation, only recovered about half the higher cost of fuel in the first three weeks of the war, says Dean Croke, DAT’s principal analyst.
|