Truck drivers hit hard by rising gas prices

ARCADIA, Calif. - "I just filled up, and it was about $600," says the petite woman behind the wheel of a Super Ten Dump Truck picking up dirt at a job site in Arcadia. "It’s probably going to be a thousand next week," says the driver in another truck, and "we have to pay for it! "

Indeed, private truckers own their rigs, and have to pay for the fuel. Truck broker April Gregg, who contracts the truckers for the jobs, says she hasn’t seen gas price increases, this quick and in such big increments, in the 30 + years she has been in the business. "All the money is going into fuel, and I am not sure if they are all going to make it.

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Back in January, she says she started to plan for price increases, asking for variances in some long-term contracts, paying a little extra money to the drivers if gas prices went up. She got some, but the increases have exceeded anything she could have planned for.  

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Ultimately, she fears, fuel costs will make it unfeasible for some drivers to work.  Fewer drivers add to the supply chain problems, with the public paying the bill at the end.  "Whether it’s moving cans of tomato juice, or dirt from a washbasin to keep it clear, it’s all the same — someone has to do it, and if it costs more to do it, it’s you and me who end up making up the difference." 

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