According to The American Trucking Association (ATA), the trucking industry is experiencing the highest prolonged fuel prices in history.
ATA noted that, historically, fuel represented the second-highest operating expense for motor carriers. For some motor carriers, fuel is reportedly beginning to surpass labor as their largest expense, ultimately resulting in the increase of cost of everything delivered by truck.
ATA is urging the federal government to help bring down the price of diesel fuel and to alleviate trucking companies’ hardships by suspending the collection of the 12% federal excise tax on motor carriers’ purchase of auxiliary power units, which cut the consumption of fuels in idling truck engines.
The trucker association is also urging the government to establish a national diesel fuel standard and eliminate the splash-and-dash tax benefit for imported biodiesel that is subsequently exported.
