Trucking Industry Facing More Difficulties

Things seem to be holding steady in the continental United States, at least in the trucking industry. Gas prices are still high, and not looking to lower themselves. The recent Hours of Service rules are working well, according to Bill Graves, President of the American Trucking Association (having dropped truck-involved fatalities 36% since 2004, nearly twice that of non-truck-related fatalities during that time). The United States government is not content with a seemingly good thing, and is attempting to revise the legislation.

As you can no doubt see, holding steady is not necessarily a good thing. What this means for the average consumer is that there will be an overall increase in costs across the board, due to the fact that the transport industry is being forced to increase their fuel surcharges. It's not going to be a tremendous increase, but even an increase of a cent or two can cause disproportionate difficulties for the citizens who are still trying to regain their feet from the recent recession.

Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of organizations such as the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA) and American Trucking Association (ATA), events seem to conspire against the industry getting a break. One such incident is the flooding in Arkansas. While not all that interesting to those outside the area, the flooding has ramifications that stretch beyond local communities. The flooding forced a close to a stretch of I-40 (which receives traffic averaging thirty- to thirty-five thousand vehicles daily), and later forced the initial detour to change.

The I-40 corridor is one of the major corridors that facilitate coast to coast traffic, and the detours necessitated have caused delays and other problems for shipper and receiver alike. Truckers have responded by offering alternate routes that avoid I-40 altogether; Mark Richardson wrote that though, "Anyone trying to drive from Oklahoma City to Nashville, it is 122 miles longer to take I-44 to St. Louis then I-64, I-57, then I-24 to Nashville or the reverse is to take I-40 direct," the subsequent increase in fuel cost will be much less of a penalty than the time detours would require.

And in the end, these increases in cost that the trucking industry is attempting to avoid are transmitted to the average consumer. Decisions companies make (like the choice to refurbish worn trailer kingpins instead of tearing out and replacing them) not only save their operating costs, but allow them to accept more work.