» The Energy Information Administration reported Monday (Jan. 5, 2009) that the national average retail price of on-highway diesel fell 3.6 cents to $2.291 per gallon. Diesel is 32.1 percent cheaper than during the corresponding week in 2008. Nationwide, the average price of a gallon of Ultra-Low Sulfur Diesel dropped 3.6 cents to $2.299. Diesel prices are most expensive on the East Coast, averaging $2.38 per gallon, and lowest in the Rocky Mountain region, averaging $2.22 per gallon.
» Just a one-penny increase in the price of diesel annualized over an entire year costs the trucking industry an additional $391 million a year.
» At the current price, compared with five years earlier, it costs 52 percent, or $236, more to fuel up a typical tractor-trailer. Compared with 10 years earlier, it costs 137 percent, or $398, more to fuel up a typical tractor-trailer.
» According to Avondale Partners, during the first three quarters of 2008, nearly 2,700 trucking companies with at least five trucks failed. This represents the largest number of trucking-related failures since the 2001 recession.
» Because trucks haul 70 percent of all freight tonnage, and 80 percent of communities receive their goods exclusively by truck, rising fuel costs have the potential to increase the cost of everything that Americans consume that comes by truck.
» The trucking industry spent more than $112 billion on fuel in 2007, and we’re on pace to spend $148.6 billion in 2008 – a record high. That’s up from $106 billion in 2006. In 2007, the industry’s diesel expenditures were about equal to the entire New Zealand economy. Additionally, at $112.6 billion, the industry’s diesel bill was 9 percent larger than the entire Kuwaiti economy, the sixth largest oil exporter in the world.
» Commercial trucks consume 53.9 billion gallons of fuel each year. About 39 billion gallons, or 73 percent, is diesel. The remaining 27 percent is gasoline.
» The U.S. Energy Information Administration recently predicted that diesel will average $2.47 per gallon this year, 35 percent lower than the 2008 average.
» There are 42 gallons of oil in a barrel of crude oil. A barrel of crude oil, when refined, yields about 20 gallons of gasoline and eight gallons of diesel, as well as other petroleum products (heating oil, jet fuel, etc.).
» In 2007, Canada was the top oil supplier to the U.S., accounting for 19 percent of U.S. crude oil imports.
» To alleviate future significant fuel price fluctuations, ATA calls upon Congress and the Bush Administration to address this crisis situation and move immediately to take steps to increase diesel fuel supply. These include increased refining capacity and the environmentally sound exploration of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Outer Continental Shelf. The trucking industry promotes common-sense measures to expand the fuel supply while reducing emissions and improving the efficiency of truck transportation.
Updated: Jan. 6, 2009
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