With diesel fuel costs topping $4.20 per gallon at the pumps, at least one area trucking company owner says the impact on the economy is yet to come.
Barry Bass, president of Bedrock Express, 1290 N. M-15 in Groveland Township, operates about 50 over-the-road diesel trucks hauling a variety of freight across Michigan and North America. He views the recent spike in fuel prices as a time for solidarity among truckers.
‘We shut down our trucks for about a day, a week ago,? said Bass. ‘But it needs to be longer’in the 1970s we shut down for a week and fuel prices dropped. We need to get together on this.?
On April 1, an unofficial nationwide call for a shutdown by thousands of independent truck operators, like Bedrock Express, who deliver supplies was sparked by the rising costs of fuel.
Bass and truckers countrywide are reeling from diesel fuel prices about $1 higher per gallon than a year ago. For trucking companies like Bedrock Express that use 500,000 gallons each year to keep their trucks on the road, the impact is staggering. Consider too, added Bass, that diesel trucks are averaging about four miles per gallon.
‘My costs right now are about $1.50 per mile in fuel’that’s not including wages or the other expenses for the truck. Many of the trucking companies like us have not passed these costs on to the consumers. It’s not busted loose yet’consider, too, that school buses, firetrucks, snowplowing equipment all depend on diesel fuel to keep on the road.?
Diesel fuel, the product of choice for most excavation equipment, truckers and farmers, was more than 60 cents higher per gallon than unleaded gasoline last week at several locations in the Brandon Township area. According to AAA, the cost of a gallon of unleaded gas statewide peaked at about $3.45 per gallon, with diesel averaging about $4.02 per gallon.
‘Many of the smaller trucking companies are out of business or have moved on to do other jobs,? said Bass.
The higher diesel fuel costs, coupled with a slowing economy, are sending some local business south, says one local fuel distributor who supplies a variety of petroleum products to customers from farms to trucking companies to excavation companies.
‘We raised our minimum delivery to 150 gallons, up from 100 gallons,? said Derrick Kratt, manager of Hamilton’s of Ortonville, 465 Mill St.
‘The smaller deliveries were just too costly for us. Many customers can only afford to purchase a small amount of fuel at one time. Many of the construction companies that we once supplied headed to the south to find work. Down there they can build just about year around.?