Fuel Prices vs. Speculators
This Editorial appears in the June 22 print edition of Transport Topics. Click here to subscribe today.
What’s wrong with this picture?
• The use of diesel fuel has fallen sharply as freight levels have nose-dived during the global recession.
• The home-heating oil season has ended, so there is no competition for the distillate both heating oil and diesel are made from.
• 
Fuel inventories are high.
• Crude oil prices have doubled since the middle of February, and the average price of retail diesel in the United States has now risen for six straight weeks, driving the price up 38.7 cents a gallon.
About the only plausible explanation we can come up with for this odd combination of events is that rampant speculation by commodity traders is to blame. In other words, we are all being asked to pay for speculators’ folly in the form of higher prices for everything we buy.
For truckers, of course, the effect of this unnatural jump in fuel prices is more immediate — higher operating costs and more red ink.
We think it’s time for the White House and Congress to move against this kind of speculation, which is harmful to virtually all of us, as it raises prices and works against the nation’s economic recovery.
It was heartening to see the news from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration recently that seat belt use by truck drivers is increasing significantly.
According to FMCSA, drivers of medium- and heavy-duty trucks during 2008 used seat belts 72% of the time, an increase of more than seven percentage points over year-earlier levels. Only 54% of commercial drivers reported regular use of seat belts in 2005.
While we’re pleased to see the increase, we’re certainly not satisfied and won’t be until we see universal use of this most effective and universally available safety tool.
American Trucking Associations has been a strong advocate of seat belt use by all motorists and especially truck drivers. ATA’s safety agenda includes urging federal adoption of policies to encourage states to pass so-called primary seat-belt laws — which allow police to stop drivers for not wearing one — audible reminders for belt use in commercial vehicles and the use of contrasting colors on seat belts to make it more obvious to enforcement officials that drivers aren’t wearing them.
Seat belts save lives, and we believe there’s no excuse for not wearing them.
