Shippers Oppose Mandated Fuel Surcharges

BALTIMORE — Many of the nation’s largest shippers will oppose any government effort to mandate a fuel surcharge, according to the top lawyer of one of the most important shipper organizations in the country.

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These same shippers apparently are also eager to see the Department of Transporation’s hours-of-service proposal disintegrate and go away.

“Nasstrac opposes a national fuel surcharge. This is a free-market function,” said John Cutler, the general counsel for the National Small Shipments Traffic Conference, at the group’s fall meeting here.

Nasstrac members include giant shippers such as Johnson & Johnson, Tiffany & Co., The Gap, Pier 1, Rite Aid and L’Oreal. These companies move large numbers of small packages and are prodigious users of less-than-truckload carriers.

For the full story, see the Sept. 25 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.