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 ...
I remember gas at 24¢/ gallon in 1969, when I had a VW Bug, going to Drake University in Des Moines, IA. And with the "gas wars", where there were 3-4 station at an intersection, it would drop to 12-14¢/ gallon. (((sigh)))
Trucking deregulation, which led to this travesty, also nearly destroyed the railroads, which not only are responsible for their own maintenance, but actually pay taxes on the rights-of-way -- tax money that goes into the general transportation pot, which funds, you guessed it, the trucking industry!
As a result, most of the railroads went bankrupt in the 1970s, including the only electrified transcontinental, which was abandoned and torn up. The industry is in much better shape now, but only after abandoning large amounts of trackage, which ran in direct competition with the trucking industry. The railroads are doing much better now, owing to labor reforms and abandonments, and they're much less susceptible to energy prices, being dramatically more fuel efficient.
If we really want to show OPEC The Finger, we should start by reforming long-distance freight transportation. Many countries (notably Switzerland) ban long-distance trucking, forcing the long haul off the highways and on to intermodal rail cars. Renovating the railroads through tax breaks and other incentives would go a long way as well.
Are you kidding, or on drugs??????
Neither, and I've studied this as an economist/engineer for years now.
If you have something more to add than ad hom, have at it.
Is not EVERY RR right-of-way in the US a result of a government taking, and hence a subsidy of the RR's, of private property?
Your entire industry was born to the govenment teet, for heaven's sake!
Where does Safeway gas come from? Thanks for the information I think I may switch to ARCO they are also one of the cheapest.
I'm surprised to learn that the most expensive stations are using the mid-east oil. I would have thought mid-east oil would allow them to decrease their prices, but it appears to only increase their profits.
Holtz
JeffersonRepublic.com
"Cry Harder, Liberal."
No need for name calling. We all want the best for America, and have different ideas for making it happen.
I personally think we need to conserve and drill. If we do these two thing, the price will come down. I have a feeling that the market will take care of its self. The price will rise to a level over what the market can hand and people will conserve and the government will take action to improve our energy system.
Holtz
JeffersonRepublic.com
I've said the same for at least 10 years. Joe Six Pack does NOT understand supply chain, nor the tremendous expense involved in building a refinery or an offshore platform. Anyone remember the Piper offshore rig that blew up 20+ years ago and disrupted oil supplies in the North Atlantic? Joe Six Pack should ask the question: Where do the oil companies come up with billions in CAPITAL to fund these projects? Duh.
Do you think these companies can fulfill the demand in an already tight market?
Answer: take Economics 101.
You are buying into a lie. See #20
No. Land grants were only used for two of the seven western railroads (UP/SP and NP). The vast majority of track in the US was never subsidized. And for what it's worth, most of that land was worthless -- NP owned a substantial chunk of Mt. St. Helens, for example. In any event, the government gots its money back from those grants by 1900.
And that will accomplish what?
My wife who worked as a senior manager in the upstream, downstream and marketing depts. for Texaco for over thirty years, laughs when she hears of this totally unrealistic idea.
True enough, but the trucking industry is the place to start.
I live in Falls Church, VA. A 1/4 acre goes for $550,000.00
What landowner ever got paid for the RR right-of-way through town?
None.
Dang socialist.
OK, then what DOES scare her?
"the trucking industry is the place to start."
I agree. I live in Redding, CA, and interstate 5 is always full of big trucks moving product. If these trucks could be reduced, we would save a lot of gas. But how would we transport goods?
Holtz
JeffersonRepublic.com
Isn't Europe paying double what we are for gas? Also based on inflation the price has remained relatively stable for 10+ years. We ALL should try to conserve and use non Arab oil/gas if possible. It really tans my hide when I see people in L.A. driving two blocks to 7-11 when they could walk (nobody walks in L.A.), yet they blame everyone else for energy problems. Car pools - a good idea seldom put into action. Oh well... I've got to go for a walk.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Afraid you've got the cart before the ass. The railroads determined where the towns were going to be. They purchased the land, either from the government or the lawful owner, at fair market value. And they pay property taxes to the state, again based on market value.
As a much more recent example, the DMVW is trying to build another railroad across South Dakota, in order to tap the Power River coal traffic. They're currently in the third phase of the proposal (after the initial determination and EIR). To date, paying the ranchers for the land hasn't been a problem, especially compared with the LULUs, NIMBYs and other lugnuts as disproven in the EIR.
Dang socialist.
I'd suggest that you pick up some business history books on railroading; particularly the business history of the Great Northern Railway by Hidy, Hidy & Scott, which was done for the Harvard Business Review. If you think that the railroads in the US were built on government handouts, history demonstrates otherwise.
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