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Trucking firms battle diesel-fuel surge As costs rise, some in county impose surcharges

BY CHRISTOPHER DEAN Staff Writer cdean1@pottsville.infi.net

If diesel fuel continues to rise, so will shipping costs - and maybe even the price of eggs.

Local independent truckers and trucking companies weighed in Wednesday on increasing diesel-fuel prices, which have forced firms to adjust their fees to compensate.

"We're eating half of the cost; we can't recoup all of it," said Gary E. Eshelman, president of Twin Valley Farmers Exchange, Hegins, which on Feb. 1. instituted a surcharge for all customers.

The fee ranges from 5 to 10 percent of the overall bill, depending on each customer's location, travel time and the routes. In some cases, traffic on certain highways is heavier and the route is longer, which in turn is harder on the trucks, Eshelman said. Also, fuel costs vary by location.

For some local trucking companies, the surcharge isn't implemented all of the time because of contractual agreements.

"Sometime we have to bite the bullet a little," said Jeffrey S. Fanelli, owner of Fanelli's Warehouse in Pottsville, which does impose a surcharge in some cases. "All the trucking companies are getting hit hard, especially in the northeastern part of the country."

Fanelli called the increase "detrimental" to the trucking industry. Twin Valley Farmers Exchange has nine diesel trucks delivering eggs to 150 grocery stores in the New York metropolitan area. They also haul mushrooms out of Avondale, Chester County.

"This is the worst I've seen since I came here almost 11 years ago," Eshelman said.

Those increased prices, which now average $1.41 in the United States and are up to $2 a gallon in some places, could stay high into the summer travel season.

The rate, which started rising in the U. S. in mid-January, is expected to decrease drastically sometime in March, according to the latest Associated Press stories on the issue.

AP's sources say gasoline prices have been rising steadily since last March, when the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) cut crude oil production by 7.5 percent - more than 2 million barrels a day - seeking to tighten supplies and push up prices that had fallen to 12-year lows.

It's a matter of supply and demand. Analysts believe OPEC will come under increasing pressure, especially from industrialized nations such as the United States, to raise production at its next meeting in late March. Oil is expected to increase barrel production from 1.5 million to 1.7 million barrels a day, according to wire reports, but that relief isn't expected to come until some time in March.

In the meantime - or if prices don't fall by next month - trucking firms may have to seek other options. "Raising egg prices at the supermarkets may be the next alternative step," Eshelman said.

Rick's Backhoe Service, Newtown, which transports water, coal, sand and stone, put a surcharge into effect Jan. 21, a couple weeks prior to Twin Valley's action.

And while the diesel-fuel increases and subsequent surcharges haven't produced any strikes or protest by truckers yet in the county, as they have in the Philadelphia area, the action has resulted in lost business.

"We lost some customers, those that refuse to pay the surcharge," owner Richard J. Withelder said. "When the cost gets back down to where it belongs - around $1.25 a gallon or so - then we'll take that surcharge away."

Albert Gurka believes leaders have been too slow in their call for action.

"Our politicians just can't seem to move fast enough to resolve this issue," said Gurka, a truck driver of 20 years who is also a driving instructor at Schuylkill Training & Technology Center, Frackville.

Gurka remembers the oil embargoes of the 1970s, which caused many truck drivers to park their trucks for more than 30 days in protest of the increases.

"It was really bad back then," he said. "I doubt something like that will happen again. Not enough people stick together. It should be resolved well before it gets to that point."

http://www.pottsville.com/pub/2000/Feb/17/A212676I.htm

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 18, 2000