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A couple of good articles from the November/December issue of Road King magazine that are worth a look... Color Me Safe - High visibility seat belts encourage truckers to buckle up  - more truck manufacturers are offering, and more operators are installing, brightly colored seat belts. Trying Times - During some tough years this driver discovered his resolve to succeed - a 25-year veteran of the highway shares his experiences with health, family, and finances...

TravelCenters of America (TA) and Pilot, two of the national truck stop chains, are reporting a few of their stations in upstate New York are selling diesel for (drumroll) $5.039 per gallon. Let's stop and think about this for a moment. A tractor-trailer pulls in and needs 200 gallon of diesel.  That will cost over a thousand dollars at those stations.  For ONE fill-up...

Try fueling a tractor-trailer these days.  A few months back when diesel was around $3.35 or so, I was chatting with the pump jockey at my local station about the credit card shutoff... depending on the card, it will either stop at $75 or $100.  He said "When the semis come in, I have to swipe that card 8 or 9 times." An article at CNN.com today mentions the plight of the trucking industry and the rapidly escalating price of diesel fuel: CNNMoney.com 5/6/2008 - Think gas hurts? Try diesel.  One of the stats in the article should make you take notice...

It's almost universally accepted that as a country, the US needs to reduce its reliance on gasoline.  The bulk of personal vehicle are 100% gasoline powered cars and light trucks.  In this week's Automotive News poll, they asked "What will be the next big 'green' powertrain in the U.S.?"  The 4 choices given were plug-in hybrids, diesels, E85, and 100% electric. All day today, the clear leader in the poll has been diesel (45%), with plugged hybrids a solid second (28%).  With no surprise, E85 has been dead last at 6% - despite its lower pump price, I think all the industry experts understand that the fuel efficiency penalty of E85 far offsets the cost savings.  And with CAFE numbers about to make a substantial rise, you need the mileage numbers. So why diesels?..

Is a truck stop parking lot full of independently owned rigs soon to be a thing of the past? This article was noted in the forums yesterday...  Independent truckers see end of the road Owner/Operators are definitely getting beat up by fuel prices, and they have no relief in sight.  On Feb 12 (as I noted a few blog posts down), I paid $3.239 for diesel at the Sunoco station I've been using since 1996.  This past Friday, the same station was at $3.599 - a 36 cent increase in 2 weeks. The O/Os quoted in the article have a point.  Trucks are still the primary mode of direct cargo delivery in the United States - a CSX locomotive doesn't pull up to your home with an overnight package or to the supermarket with that week's shelf stock.  Boeing 747s can't bring things like steel girders to a highway bridge construction site.  And if the economy and fuel prices force the independent truckers completely out of the picture, we will indeed be left with higher prices for everything if only a handful of large fleets remain...

I can thank the folks at my favorite Sun Oil Company outlet for this one.  For the first time since November, I tanked up the Ram for under $100 - $96.66 to be exact, at a pump price of $3.239.  My MasterCard thanks you.

The actual receipt from this morning.... I think I first noted diesel prices in an online forum about 10 years ago.  It was $0.899... at the very same Sunoco, ironically...

At my exit on I-80, there is only one gas/diesel station.  It's listed on the highway "Services at This Exit" sign with the extra notation of having diesel fuel.  The station has been closed for about a month, undergoing storage tank removal and replacement.  Obviously, we locals are aware of this and go elsewhere for fuel. As I exited from I-80 west last night, a tractor trailer that appeared to have come from the eastbound exit ramp approached the completely darkened and barricaded station, slowed to a crawl and hit the hazard lights.  I really hoped he wasn't too low on #2... and he basically only had 2 opportunities to "turn this rig around" and either get back on I-80 or head the other way and get to US 46 a few miles the other direction where there are several stations available...