Say What?

Question: How have soaring fuel prices impacted you?

Ed Main, 60, Knoxville, TN 
Professional driving experience: 11 years   
“I’m a company driver, so the fuel rates don’t impact me the same way they’re impacting owner-operators, but right now there are people at our place, good people, who have been let go because of the slowing economy and the high fuel costs. They’re cutting back on office staff, and that hurts. We should have had a pay raise that’s not coming through. Also, asphalt is made out of petroleum products, so potholes aren’t going to be fixed. It’s going to be a bumpy summer, and it’s all linked to fuel prices.”

Steve Smith, 50, Washington, PA  
Professional driving experience: 30 years 
“Fuel prices are up, and freight rates are the same. What does it mean? It means a lot of people are going to lose their trucks in the next few months. This is the worst I’ve ever seen it; worse than the 1970s or the 1980s. Back then, when fuel prices were high, at least the freight rates were reasonable and truckers stuck together. Not any more. We run eight trucks. Our profit margins have gone way down. Fortunately, our trucks are paid off. We were thinking about buying some new trucks this year, but we’ve changed our mind.”

Susan Pardue, 53, Clarksville, GA 
Professional driving experience: 24 years     
“We don’t bring home as much money as we used to. Someone on a mileage basis, I don’t see how they can do it. I think it was even worse back in the 1980s when you could only get so many gallons, and the interest rates were 23 percent. We’ve been through that. We’ll get through this.”

Jim Fowler, 37, Coldwater, MI  
Professional driving experience: 14 years 
“It hasn’t really impacted me at all. I’m leased on to a company, and I get a percentage of revenue plus a fuel surcharge. Our fuel surcharge has got us paying less than what we paid last year. I’ve got a lot to tell these guys who are driving and crying about fuel prices. They won’t change their thinking. They didn’t look a year ago, six months ago, and say, ‘This is what is happening in the industry. How do I adapt to do this?’ We made the changes we needed to make in order to improve our bottom line.”