It should come as no surprise that gas prices are continuing to climb and it doesn’t appear they will be descending anytime soon.
It’s an impact being felt by everyone behind the wheel, but maybe no more so than those in the trucking industry, as the national average for diesel costs has eclipsed $6 a gallon while the state average is now just under $6 at $5.97 per gallon as of Wednesday. John Waechter of Waechter Trucking says this is the largest increase he can recall seeing in his 45 years in the industry, adding he feels as though it has “caught a lot of people off guard.”
He added that despite the “shock” that many businesses and motorists have already felt, he believes the full impact of the increase in prices has yet to be fully felt, noting that trucking owners may have to pass the cost of the rising prices off to clients very soon in the form of a fuel surcharge.
Should that happen, he says commercial traffic will be seeing a pullback across the country.
For Waechter alone, he says his last visit to the pump cost him $1,200 to fuel up a single truck in his fleet, which contains a total of 20, even with a discounted price. For perspective, Waechter says it is not just small local operations such as his that are feeling the impact, noting two major trucking companies in the US just recently had to lay off over 200 drivers due in part to the cost of fuel.
He says if the prices continue to rise the way they are, that will likely be a common occurrence, illustrating the trickle-down effect that fuel prices have on all areas and individuals within the industry.
The rise in fuel prices, both diesel and not, in recent months has been linked directly to the ongoing war with Iran, with experts forecasting that it could be 12 to 16 months before diesel prices ever return to $ 3 per gallon or lower, if at all.
