Schneider National, Inc., a provider of transportation, intermodal and logistics services, announced that it is endorsing FuelSurchargeIndex.org as an improved alternative to the fuel surcharge mechanism used by carriers and shippers for more than 35 years.
This new tool (a product of ProMiles Software Development Corporation) gives shippers a precise, accurate calculation of their carrier's cost of fuel for every load moved. It also provides users with visibility to auditable and verifiable fuel costs at the time of shipment - features not available with any other fuel surcharge program today.

"The best fuel surcharge program offers neutrality for both the shipper and carrier, low-cost of administration, verifiable/auditable data and a direct link to the day and route of a load," says Mark Rourke, President of Transportation Services at Schneider National. "FuelSurchargeIndex.org accomplishes all of that and more. It's an easy-to-use system that creates fairness and simplifies fuel surcharge calculations. It's time to replace the antiquated U.S. Department of Energy process with one that makes sense for everyone in the transportation community. We are very excited to put this tool to work for our customers."

Fuel surcharges first became a hot topic in the transportation industry in the mid-1970s, when the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) created the National Retail Average to compensate carriers for the volatile fuel prices of the OPEC oil crisis era. It operates the same way today as it did back then: Each Monday, a representative group of 350 truck stops/travel plazas report their retail diesel prices, which the DOE uses to issue the national average diesel price for that week. In turn, the national average becomes the baseline for the weekly fuel surcharge rate billed by the carrier.

Instead of using the DOE's weekly average of national fuel costs, FuelSurchargeIndex.org provides shippers and carriers with accurate fuel prices on over 5,500 truck stops that are updated every 24 hours and specific to the route that a load is actually traveling.

ProMiles provides 52 of the 58 states/provinces with the software and data needed to administer compliance audits for International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA), International Registration Plan (IRP) or Hours of Service programs for thousands of carriers nationwide.

"Shippers are scrutinizing their energy spending more carefully than ever before and want to better understand how carriers arrive at a fuel surcharge rate," says Tony Stroncheck, president, ProMiles. "The FuelSurchargeIndex.org tool, backed by our company's data collection expertise, provides both the data integrity and visibility into fuel cost information that today's shippers need."

Shippers using FuelSurchargeIndex.org obtain a lane-specific rate for a particular load by entering the load's origin, destination and date into the Web-based system. They also input certain variables that are negotiated with their individual carriers including mpg, trigger point, fuel type, route method and cost per gallon discounts. The system then immediately calculates both the cost per gallon and the fuel surcharge for the load based on these data points. Since FuelSurchargeIndex.org can connect payment systems between the shipper and the carrier, this number can also become the bill rate. Shippers can easily link their existing payment systems to the Web-based system with almost no internal technology investments.

According to Steve Graham, vice president of Fuel Purchasing for Schneider National, the ProMiles calculator will certainly become the new fuel surcharge industry standard and is something for which customers have been asking. "FuelSurchargeindex.org is a logical extension of the truck stop routing and truck stop price transparency services ProMiles has been offering state auditors, regulators and trucking companies for years."

To demo FuelSurchargeIndex.org, go to www.fuelsurchargeindex.org for a free trial or contact info@FuelSurchargeIndex.org or call 1-800-324-8588.