Posted on 03/22/2008 2:13:40 PM PDT by BenLurkin
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- Coast-to-coast trucker Lorraine Dawson says fellow drivers used to call her "Lead Foot Lorraine." But with diesel fuel around $4 a gallon, she and other big-rig drivers have backed off their accelerators to conserve fuel.
"I used to be a speed demon, but no more," said Dawson, based at Tacoma, Wash. "Most drivers have cut their speed considerably."
Dawson said she's cut her speed by five to 10 miles per hour to save money for her company. Many independent owner-operators have slowed even more, she said.
"My fiance is an owner-operator and he's been crying a lot about the price of fuel," Dawson said. "He's been slowing way down."
Truckers and industry officials say slowing a tractor-trailer rig from 75 mph to 65 mph increases fuel mileage by more than a mile a gallon, a significant bump for machines that get less than 10 miles per gallon hauling thousands of pounds of freight. Even sitting still with the engine idling, a rig gulps about a gallon of diesel every hour.
"We just can't afford it," Dawson said of diesel as she was topping off her fuel tanks at a Bismarck truck stop.
When she started driving trucks in 1997, diesel was about $1.97 a gallon, $2 a gallon cheaper than what she paid Wednesday in Bismarck. Rigs like hers have two fuel tanks, typically holding 300 gallons each.
The nationwide average for a gallon of diesel on Thursday was $4.03, up from $2.74 one year earlier, AAA North Dakota spokesman Gene LaDoucer said. The average in North Dakota on Thursday was $3.98, up from $2.82 a year ago, he said.
"Twenty-four states are paying $4 or higher," LaDoucer said Thursday.
The climb is blamed on record crude oil prices and global demand, LaDoucer said.
"Diesel is the predominate fuel used in foreign countries, and there is a lot more demand for it globally and that helps bid up the price that we are paying here," LaDoucer said.
Fuel accounts for about a quarter of carriers' operating costs, and now is surpassing labor as the biggest expense for some carriers, said Tiffany Wlazlowski, a spokeswoman for the Arlington, Va.-based American Trucking Associations.
"And rising fuel costs do increase the cost of consumer goods," she said.
Trucks haul 70 percent of all freight tonnage in the U.S., according to the American Trucking Associations.
State troopers have noticed the decline in truckers' speeds, said North Dakota Highway Patrol Capt. Eric Pederson.
"We see it when we're out patrolling," Pederson said. "In talking to the drivers, a lot of the large companies are setting policies that give the drivers a little more leeway on the time on their loads -- just to save on the fuel."
Wlazlowski said the U.S trucking industry expects to spend $135 billion on diesel this year, up from $112 billion in 2007. There are 3.5 million truck drivers in this country, she said.
"For every one-penny increase in the price of diesel, it costs our industry $391 million," she said. "In the last month, it's gone up 50 cents."
Wlazlowski said the trucking industry does "anything that will help them save fuel." She said that includes outfitting trucks with aerodynamic fairings and special tires to improve mileage. Drivers also are using more efficient routes and reducing idling times.
Trucking company Con-way Inc. of Ann Arbor, Mich., announced this month that it adjusted speed governors on the engines of the 8,400 semis in its less-than-truckload division, Con-way Freight.
Truckload carriers usually dedicate a shipment to a single customer, and move freight directly from the shipper to the receiver. Less-than-truckload carriers are filled with shipments from multiple customers, and may redistribute it at terminals along routes.
Con-way spokesman Gary Frantz said the maximum speed of the trucks has been cut from 65 mph to 62, a move that should cut fuel consumption by 3.2 million gallons a year.
"It's a significant savings," Frantz said.
The company said the move also would eliminate 72 million pounds of carbon emissions annually, or the equivalent to removing nearly 7,300 automobiles from U.S. highways.
Frantz said the company should have the governors on the 3,000 rigs in its truckload fleet adjusted next month.
Whatever? Try reading the whole article! They are lowering the max speed allowed by the governor, you fool. Do you know what a governor is?
Great. All I ask is stay out of the left lane.
I wish TX would enforce the left lane law for passing only. It is now where passenger cars run in it and won’t move over when you come up to them....
Being right doesn’t give you the authority to question the MSM.
Do you know what a governor is?
Yep, Isn’t that what Bill Clinton once was?....
as with everything there are trade off.
Idleaire, the newest service of anti idle is a government subsidized publicly traded company their rates are about 3.00 per hour.
there is a point where they are cheaper on the surface than idling in a cost per gallon per hour of diesel.
my C-15 Cat engine uses about 1.5 gallons per hour to idle so at current prices its a $6 vs. $3 per hour choice.
also there is the consideration of the emissions and the wear and tear of idling an engine that is $16,000.00 to rebuild.
the most noteworthy offset is that to setup the system you lose about 1/3rd of the parking, there's currently a 20,000 parking space deficiency now with restrictions tightening every day.
I use and APU mounted on my trucks so I have 5KW of 110 voltage, a/c, heating, battery monitoring and can use it for one pint of fuel .50 an hour
They might as well repeal the law, I’ve never seen it enforced.
They might as well repeal the law, I’ve never seen it enforced.
I'm not a trucker, but almost took a job with them in Knoxville a few years ago. You seem to be giving investment advice or the Con of a system owner vs the consumer.
Does it benefit the driver in the long run?
I had no idea it was subsidized. I thought it was all private. I understand your post now.
the cost of slowing down is a decrease in wages. The time increases and somewhere there is a tradeoff between slowing down and driver cist.
Reducing speed to 55 will cause a depression as all costs rise precipitously.
This but a crude lefty attempt to reinstate the 55 mile limit
you've be listening to miss informed non drivers.
speed does not increase or decrease mileage run in a day, consistency is the key to distance.
I see drivers rip by me at 80+ five or six times a day on my travel days and they don't make anymore miles at the end of the day than I do sticking with it at 75 staying in the seat with a break or two.
They do burn more fuel running faster and stopping and starting though...
careful what you listen to especially if you're gonna repeat it as fact.
Nice turk. 300 gallons @ 4 bucks a gallon, $1200. Whew!
Isn't that a person who hires expensive hookers?
Oh you guys are so funny. It’s like I’m talking to bob hope and jerry seinfeld.
I want to be Jerry.
Why can’t the guy being passed take his foot off the pedal for a second or two to allow the passer to get over quicker. It’s almost as if it is an insult to be passed, so they fight it with all they have.
I dropped from 75 down to 62 mph on the cruise control...gets me 2 extra trips to work between fillups, at $10 per trip.
You are thinking like a truck driver. I’m thinking about your customer. Slowing to 55 is a 15% reduction in productivity.
When spread across all involved, the economy slows by pretty much the same speed as the trucks. Slow the trucks, slow the economy.
Cruise control. Governors. That’s all there is to it. Time is money and neither one wants to slow down. It’s even more complicated when you consider that one truck may be pulling a heavier load and so it slows down more on the uphill climbs. So if the heavier truck with the higher allowed top speed by the governor is trying to pass the lighter truck with the slower governor, you have a situation where one truck is faster downhill, but the other truck is faster uphill. Neither one is going to budge a single MPH.
Pride......... There are still a lot of courteous truckers out there but imo a lot aren't.
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