Posted on 04/02/2005 9:53:59 AM PST by NormsRevenge
Outraged every time you fill your tank? Try filling 100 of them.
High fuel prices - gasoline and diesel hit records Friday in California - are steadily eroding trucking executive Joe Antonini's bottom line.
"It's definitely cutting our profit margin," said Antonini, whose Stockton-based Antonini Enterprises runs a 100-truck fleet that hauls fruit and other goods around California and Nevada. "It's one of the biggest expenses a trucking company has."
True, the pain is manageable. Antonini can pass on some of the costs to customers. But not all. "We have to live with it," he said. "We have no choice."
With prices one-third higher than they were five years ago, the cost of fuel is turning into a dull, but persistent, backache for the American economy. It's not crippling but is certainly noticeable. While the bigger expense doesn't impoverish most people, it drains dollars from their wallets - dollars that might get spent on other things.
"I don't think it's going to send either the California economy or the nation into a recession," said state chief economist Howard Roth. "But it certainly could slow the growth of the economy."
Much depends on how high prices get and how long they stay there. AAA said a gallon of self-serve regular gas hit a statewide average of $2.45 Friday, breaking the record set last October.
Sacramentans were paying $2.36 a gallon, 2 cents shy of the record but 29 cents higher than a month ago. Across the nation, the average price of $2.16 was a record.
Diesel, meanwhile, is a staggering $2.62 a gallon in California - also a record.
Driving all of this is another run-up in crude oil prices, which jumped $1.87 a barrel Friday to close at a record $57.27 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
We, as a nation, are truly running on fumes.
Hmmmm. For a couple hundred thousand, I will design an algorithm that rearranges his trucking routes to minimize costs, based on fuel prices and tolls.
A bandaid fix on a bleeding jugular ehh....
Like I fill my boat with gas outside of EPA-controlled areas. Halves the cost.
I bet these trucks drive through non-EPA controlled fuel formulation (botique gas) areas often - why not fill up there?
NO new refineries have been built on almost 30 years.
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...of course, you do know WHY that is? What better way to FORCE demand over supply. Ever read the financial statements on the oil companies of late ?? Like any other public corporation, they are in business to make money. They can charge whatever they want to for their product...so it is fair to take the argument of the impact on the economy to the government --- that is what I have done hundreds of times, over the last ten years...but it is near impossible to get any action out of people that are bought and paid for. Washington is funny that way...
Most of the rest is TAXES!
Honestly, to create the kind of horrible mess we had before Ronaldus Magnus, we'd need to bring Jimmy Cawtah back to life!
The irrational gas rationing was in the 70s; I used to carry around a receipt from a Mobil station that had $1.28 gallon price from 1979 when I could only fill up on odd-numbered days in Simi Valley, Calif.
Most companies that travel across state lines are required by those states to buy a fuel tax stamp. If they go thru the state they have to buy a certain percentage of their fuel in that state. Take a look next time you see a cross country truck most of them have stamps from all the states they travel thru.
I live in the country and the guy at the local food mart says the trucking firm who brings down his meat is now charging a surcharge for fuel. I have a friend with 3 wreckers, I sometimes work for him ,his fuel bill last month was $1800 dollars and he says he wont be able to keep his price the same much longer, It affects every business.
LOL! Trucks use diesel fuel, not gasoline.
Nice list. The Saudis are gearing up for when they run out of oil in 10 to 20 years from now. Hrmmmm...I wonder who's going to be more in a world of hurt? We'll be able to adapt, find new energy sources, they however will be sent back into the 19th century (the stone age for them).
Perhaps if we hurt enough, the majority of Americans will rise up, overcome the whining of the enviromental psychos, and permit more drilling and exploration on North American land or sea. There might be a silver lining to this cloud after all.
This from an interview:
Regional differences are partly due to different tax rates among the different states. You can get as much as 10 cents difference just from one state to the next. The other reasons are differences in regulations regarding gasoline emissions and gas specifications.
Chicago, for example, has different gas than Milwaukee, and Atlanta has its own requirements. There are 17 different types of reformulated and non-reformulated gas in the country. The most stringent is California. The average price per gallon in California is 40 cents more than the national average. That's the most extreme case. Most other states are within 10 cents above or below the national average. It's become a very complicated production, distribution and marketing situation when you have so many different types of gasoline.
I can minimize the effect, for a price.
Hey, I am just looking to make money, here. I do it all the time.
Botique diesel is now required - my arguement stands.
That's news to me.
And the oil companies are laughing themselves all the way to the bank. Still like the idea that the consumers across the nation go on coordinated one-day per week gasoline strike.
That's why I make money - because you are not paying attention. ;)
Look up "fungible" and get back to us.
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