The American Trucking Assns. has launched an online initiative asking motor carriers and truck drivers to share anecdotal information about the effects of high fuel prices on their business.

The web site feature (www.truckline.com/fuelpricecrisis) is part of ATA’s National Fuel Price Crisis Watch, an initiative designed to educate public officials on how fuel prices are hurting the trucking industry, and ultimately, the national economy.
“The effects of high fuel prices follow safety as a major concern for our industry,” ATA President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Graves said. “They are starting to become a drag on national economic growth.”
Graves said the industry needs a central place to gather real-time information about the effect record fuel prices are having. The experiences, he said, will help advance the trucking industry’s case on how fuel is hurting business.
Few industries feel the impact of rising fuel costs more directly than trucking. Commercial trucks consume 49.8 billion gallons of fuel each year. Of that, about 35 billion gallons is diesel. At current prices, the trucking industry is on pace to spend an unprecedented $80 billion on diesel fuel this year, $18 billion more than a year earlier. That follows a $10 billion increase in fuel costs over 2003.
The rising cost of fuel has the potential to create a ripple effect throughout the economy. As prices continue to rise, consumers may see higher costs for all goods delivered by truck. This will have a significant economic impact because 80% of communities in the United States get their goods solely by truck.
Motor carriers and truckers can e-mail their fuel reports to fuelcrisis@trucking.org.