Our Awful Situation

Trucking news: Talk of an April 1 trucking shutdown gains momentum

Posted by Charlie Kilo on March 29th, 2008

Speculation about a possible trucking shutdown on April 1 has been gaining momentum recently, according to media reports and Internet discussion boards.

Independent truckers are the life blood of the U.S. economy and diesel prices are sucking them dry. Consider this:

The shutdown, which would be conducted primarily by owner-operators, is in response to the current run-up for diesel gasoline prices. Nationwide, diesel is currently averaging $3.989 per gallon and has gone up 70.9 cents in the last five weeks—all of which have been record-breaking—according to the Energy Information Association, a unit of Department of Energy. And in some parts of the U.S. diesel is already exceeding the $4 per gallon mark.

What’s more, the American Trucking Associations (ATA) called on the White House earlier this week to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to curtail this ongoing historical run-up in crude oil prices, which continue to hinder myriad segments of the U.S. economy and freight transportation—especially trucking—in general. And last week the ATA projected a record-high diesel bill for 2008, noting that that trucking industry is on pace to spend $135 billion on fuel in 2008—based on current price forecasts. This estimate, said the ATA, would be a $22 billion increase over the trucking industry’s $112.6 billion 2007 fuel tab.

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Our Awful Situation

Trucking news: Talk of an April 1 trucking shutdown gains momentum

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