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Diesel Tops $3.00 a Gallon In California

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SHADY

Expert Expediter
Well fuel is something we all watch like hawks, swooping in on low prices. Having flexability as to where you buy is all important. I've slowed down. As Kevin Rutherford advises 1400 RPM is the sweet spot. I ran from NC to MD 500 miles last night at near 8mpg with 19,000lb
in the trailer. I think of it as a game. I work every second at maintaining the trucks momentum, while stretching the fuel. I now fuel without gloves so I know if the station is heating the fuel. Nothing puts a smile on my face faster than a cold tank of fuel.I'm also looking for a lady teamate so the truck can run,we hile my log book is resting.
I have not bougtht an APU as there are reliability questions, and some are worse than none. I will have a heater for winter. In my old Ford (gasoline), the bunk warmer worked to -20. But this big truck would be a lump of junk.
We just have to work smarter. Then we can profit from this situation, like the big trucking and oil companys. Just like ExxonMobil, we have a larger flow of money going past. It is up to us to maintain our usual percentage, even if we have to slow down to do it.
 
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truckerbse2

Expert Expediter
This is to all and I will be as nice as possible. Fuel is supply and demand. Petro, Pilot, Shell, Mobil, etc.. supply, we demand! If you really want something done about fuel prices, take matters into your own hands, SLOW DOWN!!! I drive the speed limit or under, never more that 67 mph. Overall for the last 4 months my fuel mileage is 8.4 mpg ave. with my tractor. 2nd, buy a generator! I know they cost money! I bit the bullet 4 years ago. Best thing I ever bought and we run team. If you save 8 gallons of idle fuel per day at $2.50/gal, that's $20/day, $600/month, $7,200/year, or $36,000/5 year. That's just fuel. All oil companies will tell you 1 hour idle is equivalent to 50 miles on the road. That's 500 miles of engine life per day. If you stay out 300 days, that's 150,000 miles. If you ave $1.30/mile at you job and add that life, even just one year's worth, to your engine overall that's an additional revenue of $195,000 your truck makes. Not buying that generator just cost you $202,000 that year. In addition to the direct fuel savings and engine life extension, if every solo truck out here, and we'll say that number is 1,000,000, which is low but use it for arguements sake, saves 8 gallons of fuel per day, that is just under 3 billion gallons of diesel a year. Do you think we could get Shell's attention by "not" purchasing $9 billion dollars of fuel per year? I think at that point, we start having a bargaining chip! Until then, if we buy it, they will sell it!! Don't get me wrong, I'm not happy about prices but until we as a country, and specifically us as an industry, stand up and scream "NO MORE", our pleas fall on deaf ears of those whose pockets are lined by the very crude we buy. It always seems that money is something that speaks louder than words anyway! On this we "have" to be proactive or we will continue to suffer until we all fail!!
 
LDB

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
The old saying "time is money" is true although inversely in our case. Statistically every mph above 55mph is the equivalent of approximately -0.1mpg so 60mph is 1/2 mpg lower fuel economy than 55mph and 65mph is 1mpg lower fuel economy than 55mph and blitzing along at 70mph is 1.5mpg lower fuel economy than 55mph. Numbers may be slightly different for some but overall that's a pretty fair estimate so you can basically equate your speedometer with a fuel suction meter and the higher the speed the more your fuel mileage sucks.

Installing an APU is definitely a winning situation. There will be times when you don't have to run a/c or heat because it's nice weather. You'll be home some too. We also have to consider the APU uses some fuel and a class 7 engine isn't going to use as much idling as a class 8. Even factoring all that in we can conservatively estimate 0.5 gallon per hour savings with an APU. Again conservatively using 8 hours a day that's 4 gallons a day savings or about $10 times 7 days is $70 a week minimum savings. Once again very conservatively saying 40 weeks on the road is $2800 annual savings in idling fuel alone. With idling limited to less than 10% of run time through APU usage service intervals can be extended eliminating at least one routine maintenance per year for another couple hundred so our very conservative estimate is $3,000 annual savings from an APU. Factoring in tax savings puts the payoff time at about 2 years and very possibly much less depending on hours idling, weeks on the road, and other factors.

Three thousand dollars per year times every truck with an APU definitely adds up to fuel savings the oil companies should notice. Hopefully hundreds of thousands more trucks will join the APU ranks and we'll see a payoff in fuel prices as well as personal savings.

Leo
truck 4958
73's K5LDB

Support the entire Constitution, not just the parts you like.
 
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tiredofsittn

Expert Expediter
saw today the major airlines got together and raised rates 2 bad we cant do that only undercut each other until these shiprs pay more it want change we will cont. to PAY
 
greg334

greg334

Veteran Expediter
What I don’t get is the fuel distribution system that has the prices being raised after the fuel is in the ground.

I argued with a station owner when he was raising the price of fuel just as I was paying for it. He admitted that the fuel in the ground was already paid for but because the distributor will be charging more tomorrow, he wants to raise the prices to cover the increase ion his wholesale cost for the next load of fuel he gets. I was mad at him becuase he wanted me to pay the difference.

He also said that when crude goes up on the market, and he quoted Sept 05 crude future prices, that the distributor and the station owners raise prices to reflect the futures price, not the spot prices.

I don’t know…. It seems out of place for everyone to quote the price of crude as there is only one type but there are several types of crude oil. Oh look Dubai crude closed at $57.50 yesterday.
 
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