All that we here about are the losers in the high fuel price situation. I came across this article and it caused me to think about who the winners are going to be.

Last week, his employer, Walkenhorst Transportation of Lee’s Summit, Mo., reset the maximum speed of his rig to 68 miles per hour from 75 to squeeze out a few extra miles per gallon. While he can still reach most posted speed limits, it now takes an extra 45 minutes to complete the 641-mile daily round-trip hauling auto parts from Nashville, Ill., to a Ford plant in Kansas City. That means Montgomery must leave home at 8:45 a.m. instead of 9:30 — with no extra pay.

So, the public is a winner in a safety aspect. We are running slower. My truck is now governed where previously it was my decision on how fast to run. Drivers are going to lose money in the short run, but my opinion is that my overall productivity is higher when I run reasonable speeds, it’s less stress.

“This is going to put every small trucking company out of business,” he said, filling his truck with $482 of fuel at the Mr. Fuel station off Interstate 70 in Foristell.

ATA companies rejoice. I haven’t heard any complaints from them about fuel yet. No longer will they have to worry about the little guy undercutting them and taking the drivers that they trained. I’ve even seen them taking over union jobs with private companies. Krogers grocery chains used to have highly coveted union trucking jobs that are now gone to U.S. Express. Granted high employee costs played a bigger role, but fuel is going to push the remainders out.

“Unlike gasoline, where the U.S. is the biggest market in the world, diesel is very strong globally, especially in Europe,” said Laurie Falter, an analyst at the Energy Information Administration. “We don’t have dominance in the overall diesel market.”

We don’t think about this, and many of us are skeptical, but this is one explanation why diesel prices exceed gasoline. No win/lose here, but it’s something we have to consider as the economy abroad changes.

The article then goes on to talk about how drivers are not planning on owning their own trucks. Another win for the ATA. They’re going to sweeten the pot with their lease scams with an enticing fuel price. The ATA companies will do their usual numbers game and try to make it possible to own you’re own truck, even with fuel prices out of control, so long as it’s under their ultimate authority.

Of course, everybody will suffer with higher priced goods, but there are going to be many that win this game. I do think that the smart owner-operator can win too, but it is going to take some seriously intelligent moves. How many companies wouldn’t dream of putting their load on an ATA company truck? There are loads that ATA companies won’t touch and recently some of them have bailed on the flatbed scene.

To be a winner at this, a driver is going to have to spend less time complaining and more time discovering new ways of doing things. It’s really nothing new, it’s just that the severity of the problem is more pronounced now. If there is going to be any unity in trucking it will be a shift towards drivers needing education and training to compete effectively, not in one big day when we all stop to complain some more. This site is doing a great job at attempting to cover upcoming changes in our industry and I am learning everyday I see new posts. This learning idea might catch on. :-)