Consider This

Fuel prices on everyone’s mind, even thieves

In response to high fuel prices, some of the nation’s big trucks are slowing down. Con-Way Freight and Schneider National both announced plans to reduce their truckers’ speeds. Con-Way recently turned back the speed limiters from 65 mph to 62 mph on all its 8,500 rigs. The company estimates that the slower speed will save 3.2 million gallons of diesel fuel a year, eliminate 72 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions, and, if diesel fuel remains around $4.30 per gallon, save the company about $13.8 million per year.
     Schneider National announced it will cap its drivers’ speeds at 60 mph as of July 1. The company expects a savings similar to that of Con-Way.
     Schneider’s announcement followed a call by the American Trucking Associations for Congress to enact a nationwide speed limit of 65 mph for all vehicles in order to save fuel and cut harmful emissions. Reducing truck speed will mean longer workdays for drivers (and no raise since they are paid by the mile).
     Schneider, however, says its tests found that truckers traveling at 60 mph averaged only 12 to 20 minutes of extra work time each day. The company also offers drivers financial incentives to stay at 60 mph.
     With diesel prices sky high, it can cost more than $1,200 to fill a 150-gallon fuel tank. As if that’s not enough of a burden, truckers now have to contend with a rise in diesel theft. Around the country there has been an increase in incidents of thieves stealing fuel from heavy trucks and other equipment.
     The most common type of theft is fuel siphoning. A thief can drain a truck’s tank in about 30 minutes, less time than it takes for a driver to eat a meal and take a shower. One driver recently reported to police in Indiana that he awoke on a Sunday morning to discover that 150 gallons of diesel fuel was stolen from his truck during the night. Another driver reported that someone had stolen about 200 gallons from his truck at the same truck stop a month earlier.
     Thieves are also targeting construction sites and agricultural facilities for overnight raids. A Houston man even tried to hijack a tanker truck carrying more than 7,000 gallons of diesel fuel, but was later caught and charged with aggravated robbery.
     Jim Sutton, director of Highway Watch, said that stolen fuel usually ends up on the black market, where thieves make about half the going market price. Tank cap locks have been around for a while, but now a company in the United Kingdom has introduced an anti-siphoning device for trucks and buses that it says will “withstand serious attacks.”
     Source: Roemer Report. Used with permission.