Bad news
Bad news on the doorstep,
I couldn’t take one more step…
–lyric from “American Pie” (1971) by Don McLean (Iona College, B.B.A. ‘68)
Just when you think things can’t get any worse, leave it to a Wall Streeter to wreck your holiday weekend– a full two days before it starts.
I know my job here is to comment on trucking but as I don’t own a commercial vehicle, nothing brings the fuel crisis home to me as thumpingly as the price of gas.
Of course gas prices at the pump are affected by many factors– transportation costs (yep, trucks bring it!), taxes, and a real bone of contention in my home state of Connecticut: the legalized thievery known as “zone pricing.”
But I digress… The thing is when plain old regular gas hit $4.00 and then promptly started floating upward to reach the $4.19 range this past week, I was thrilled to hear over the car radio that at least one analyst expected the price to peak Memorial Day Weekend and then if not drop at least slide on back a bit.
Dream on, Dave. That bubble of optimism was spectacularly burst this morning by a piece in The New York Times that revealed an “oracle of oil” (that is the newspaper’s description, not mine), one Arjun N. Murti, an analyst with giant investment bank Goldman Sachs, “foresees a ’super spike’ — a price surge that will soon drive crude oil to $200 a barrel.” 
The barrel we are all over
The Gray Lady report states that “A few years ago, rivals scoffed when he predicted oil would breach $100 a barrel. Few are laughing now. Oil shattered yet another record on Tuesday, touching $129.60 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. ”
It goes on to point out that “the grim calculus of Mr. Murti‘s prediction, issued in March and reconfirmed two weeks ago, is enough to give anyone pause: in an America of $200 oil, gasoline could cost more than $6 a gallon. “
Well, I am not laughing one bit and refuse to just pause over this.
I for one am very concerned that the Lamest Duck Adminstration, which still has many levers of power at its fingertips, will actually do anything significant to ease the slow death by oil our economy seems consigned to suffer.
There’s a lamer duck than Howard in DC these days
Barring that, all we can do at work and at home is be as economical as possible and hang on till next January when a new POTUS might show us what a real leader can make happen.
Well I can dream, can’t I?
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Related Topics: Heavy Trucks, Management, Equipment, Midrange Trucks, Light Trucks, David Cullen, Drivers, Trucking
May 21st, 2008 at 4:00 pm
If you think it’s bad how about paying $4.7486 per gal in Barstow,CA and $4.6988 in Harrisburg, PA for a waste product such as Diesel. I own a small Trucking Co in San Bernardino, CA and my trucks run between CA and the Northeast, the avg round trip is costing between $4300.00 and $4500.00 just for fuel, and going up every day. After fuel and driver cost there is nothing left to pay the rest of the operating cost. Profit, what profit?, Add a fuel Surcharge, we get a little on our outbound loads but not enought to pay the increases in fuel, and the back hauls, some brokers are still living in the eighties trying to pay $1.00 per mi. we have a hard time just to break even on back hauls. I am just hanging on and wonder when I like other trucking companies will close our doors for good, the bet is when I can’t pay my fuel bill I will have trucks down all over the country then my doors will close and like other small trucking companies we will also be gone for ever.
This Goverment should declare that there is a National Emergency and open up drilling for oil and allowing the building of new refineries in this country, or are the enviormentalist so strong thatt they have the power to Bankrupt this Country in order to get their way, they not only hurt the transportation industrie but it all passes down to the consumer and we all pay more for everything we buy causing a slow down in manafactoring, the end result is people out of work.
May 21st, 2008 at 4:52 pm
The lame duck really seems to be our current Democratic Congress…the only group to have a lower rating than the President. They have stopped any chance for new drilling or new refining, while continuing to penalize anything to do with equipment utilizing petroleum. It sure sounds like they have a strong interest in helping Al Gore develop new and profitable businesses for his friends at the expense of America.
May 21st, 2008 at 4:54 pm
What is your comment: Waiting for moderation? I didn’t use any profanity and didn’t defame any one individual. Is this blatant censorship?
May 21st, 2008 at 5:09 pm
Really, blame this on George Bush huh?
Congress has no input in this at all I guess. I might also point out that all the liberal rethoric about lack of leadership is coming from and congress that has been controlled by democrats and liberals since 2006. I don’t think those in glass houses should throw stones.
The facts are we are buying oil when we have our own. What happened to the price of electrical power in California when they basically outlawed power plants …… they had to purchase all thier power and guess what …..the prices soared. They had no choice they didn’t have capacity to produce their own. I might also add the same over the top environmentalist that pushed through the abolishment of California’s ability to produce power have now successfully prohibited oil exploration and / or harvest in the the US and surrounding waters. I’m not anit envornmental, I’m an avid outdoors person but the pendlum has swung too far.
The consumer cannot dictate what the price of something should be they can only infulence what the price will be by limiting the demand it. When we don’t need their oil watch what happens to the price of a barrel. They can’t drink it or eat it.
New technologies are great and high costs of oil are driving the quest and probably shortening the timeline concerning dependance but any real short term relief must be market driven and the only way to do that is either quit driving or produce our own.
I have gout maybe I should blame George Bush for that also.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Dear all:
To clarify my position, I am not blaming George Bush for runaway fuel prices but I am saying that as POTUS he has certain Executive Powers he can invoke as well as the bully pulpit that is the Presidency that he can speak from much more forcefully than he has to help at least mitigate this crisis.
The Congress (which in my view is only marginally under Democratic control) has a lot to answer for about a lot of things, too, but they do not have the ability to act swiftly in the face of a crisis like this as the Executive Branch does.
Do you recall by any chance that in 1957 Ike sent in federal troops to keep the peace during the integration of Little Rock High School?
Did you know that in ‘62 JFK pressured steel makers into reversing price increases that were dangerously inflationary?
And have you forgotten that in 1981 Ronald Reagan ended the air traffic controllers’ strike by simply firing them all?
So, you see there is plenty of precedent for presidents to make things happen domestically as well as overseas.
For what it’s worth, I happen to think all three U.S. Senators now running for president would do a better job of handling this mess than George Walker Bush has.
And, of course, thanks to each of you for your generous comments.
No doubt all of us can agree that the free speech we enjoy as Americans is truly priceless.
Oh yeah, also please remember what the immortal Bluto Blutarsky told us:
When the going gets tough, the tough get going!
May 24th, 2008 at 4:08 pm
At the risk of being the skunk at a garden party I would like to offer a different take on the problem with diesel prices.
An economist would look at it as an imbalance in the market between the supply and the demand for trucking services. Things are unlikely to improve until this imbalance is worked out (sort of similar to what is going on in the housing market right now) and pricing power returns to the service provider. A trucker has to be able to say to the costumer these are my expenses, this is what I pay for my truck, the insurance on it, the taxes I pay,the permits I need, my maintenance reserve and, naturally, what it costs me to fill up my tanks. Plus, of course, I want to make a profit to make it all worth my while. If enough of a demand for this trucker’s services exisits, he will receive the rate he demands and not before then.
At this point the price of diesel takes on a diminished importance because it is simply one more item (although a large one) that factors into the cost of doing business and a business owner has to be able to set his rates at a level that is higher. Any trucker that fails to do that will just drive himself out of business and , as somebody observed, you can do that at home sitting on the couch.
With regards
dondiaz@earthlink.net
May 29th, 2008 at 11:06 am
Don,
Please rest assured that “skunks”– especially ones who correspond intelligently and pleasantly like yourself– are always quite welcome at my garden party!
David
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About
Between the Lines: David Cullen offers his take on how actions taken by government agencies, industry suppliers and other trucking stakeholders impact truck fleet owners. Executive Editor of FleetOwner, Cullen has been covering trucking since 1981 and has been on the staff of FleetOwner since 1989. He does not claim to be an expert on trucking, but will admit to being a writer-- and hoping to be regarded a journalist.Advertisement
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