Higher diesel prices could be passed on to consumers

As gas prices have soared, diesel prices are climbing alongside them. 

Stations in Rock Hill carried diesel for $3.86 on Wednesday. It was $4.04 at many stations in Charlotte.

Marty Edens manages Rock City Hauling in Rock Hill.

"If this keeps happening, if fuel keeps going up, we won't be OK," Edens said.  

Rock City is a small company that runs eight trucks across the country. The company hauls massive cargo like Army tanks, wind mills and cranes.  The rigs only manage about three miles to the gallon.  The company budgets about $600,000 a year for fuel. 

Edens said if prices rise, so will what he charges his customers.

"We'll have to raise our rates.  It costs us more to make a run, we have to charge more to do it.  We can't do this at a loss," he said.

When shipping companies have to charge their customers more, you pay more as well.  Fuel prices impact everything from milk and bread to clothes and furniture.  Trucking companies have no choice but to pass on increased costs, especially when fuel prices rise, but freight rates don't.  Many companies are not making any more for what they're hauling to offset rising fuel costs.

Diesel prices have jumped 20 to 30 cents in the last 90 days.  However, it's not only small companies feeling the pinch.  Truckers who own and operate their own trucks are struggling.  It can cost more than a thousand dollars to fill a big rig.  Most have at least two 100-gallon tanks.

It's not just the fuel prices, either. An oil change costs more than $200, and it's roughly $350 to replace a single tire.

Glenn Flowers has driven a truck for 10 years. He drives for a large regional company based in North Carolina. The gas doesn't come out of his pocket directly, but it does in other ways.  His company has cut back his hours on the road to save money.

"Before, we were running 12- or 14-hour days.  Now we're running maybe eight or 10.  It's really slowed down," he said.