Carrier Urges Regional Surcharges

One of the nation’s largest truckload carriers is beginning to push for changes in the way fuel surcharges are calculated to recover more of its fuel costs.

	Fuel Prices
	Week of Feb. 7:
	source	price		change
	DOE	147.0		+3.1
	Comdata*	142.2		+1.5
	OPIS self-serve*	143.3		+0.3
	OPIS wholesale*	89.1		-0.3
	*Comdata and OPIS figures are from week of Jan. 29. Click here for more fuel prices.
		More coverage on Truckline

Max L. Fuller, co-chairman of U.S. Xpress Enterprises, Chattanooga, Tenn., has recommended switching to regional, rather than national, fuel price averages to set surcharge levels.

Since May 1987, the Department of Energy has published regional diesel fuel price averages for five Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts, which are split into nine subdistricts. The East Coast, New England, Central Atlantic and Lower Atlantic are in PADD 1; the Midwest in PADD 2; the Gulf Coast in PADD 3; the Rocky Mountains in PADD 4; and the West Coast and California in PADD 5.

Under the U.S. Xpress plan, a load moving from PADD 1 to PADD 5 would be assigned a surcharge based on the average fuel price of the two regions.

For the full story, see the Feb. 7 print edition of Transport Topics. Subscribe today.