Diesel prices hit a new all-time high on Thursday hitting a whopping $5.47 per gallon. Last year diesel was more than $2.00 cheaper per gallon and expects are warning that the ripple effect will effect the price of goods and to a supply shortage on store shelves.
Because of the skyrocketing diesel prices some truckers are having to park their trucks others are having to cut routes. The record setting prices are also causing smaller trucking companies to go out of business and threatens to disrupt the nation’s already struggling supply chain.
Many point to Joe Biden as inflation continues to soar putting heavy burdens on Americans. Biden waged a war on American energy, cancelled oil leases on federal lands, cut off the Keystone Pipeline and has made energy development more expensive in America.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz posting to Twitter about the record setting diesel prices,
Diesel has hit a record high. pic.twitter.com/kYL7d83Gqk
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) May 2, 2022
Cities across the nation are feeling the pinch. In El Paso, Texas the increase per gallon is resulting in millions per year.
Royal Jones with Mesilla Valley Transportation told local media,
“I can’t take a $6 million increase, we don’t make that kind of money. We have to pass it to the shipper and the shipper in turn passes it to the consumer.” Jones said that their annual fuel costs have nearly tripled in recent months.
Another El Paso company, Trans-Logistics Int’l Inc. is seeing similar things,
“It’s always the smaller companies that feel the impact harder than the big corporation. It was done so quickly. A snap of fingers and before we knew it rates were going up.” Barbara Carrasco told a local outlet.
The trucking companies say they are forced to pass the increase prices on to their customers.
In order to stay open, these transportation companies have to increase their surcharges for fuel.
In West Virginia, Gasbuddy.com head of petroleum analysis Patrick DeHaan said prices are up 16-cents a gallon over the past week.
“We are seeing oil prices rebound amidst declining inventory for both gasoline and diesel.”
DeHaan said the pressure is caused by demand with limited supplies.
“Diesel inventories are now at their lowest level in 14 years,” DeHaan said adding that a limited number of refineries in the eastern U.S. is partly to blame.
An independent truck driver in Ohio, Chris Lower, is paying more at the pump now than ever before.
“I was paying $700 a week for diesel two years ago. I’m now paying upwards of $1,700 to $2,000 a week,” Lower said.
Companies in Ohio like Herlache Truck Lines said they paid about $25,000 more for fuel than last year.
If fuel expense stays as high as it has been for the past two months, our annual budget for fuel is going to be up by $300,000. We’re going to spend almost $1 million on fuel this year,” the company’s president, Tom Herlache, said.
The skyrocketing gas prices are further damaging the trucking industry, which has already been struggling with a driver shortage, as they lose about 800,000 truck drivers each year,
“With fuel being a very big expense, it’s hard. It’s hard on the whole industry,” truck driver Brian Eichinger said.
According to the American Trucking Association. the trucks move about 72% of all U.S. goods, which means the nation could soon see a massive shortage of products on the shelves.
