The diesel squeeze is on for businesses moving commodities on and off the North Olympic Peninsula.
With the per-gallon price of diesel reaching $2.61 earlier this month, trucking company owners say their only option is a fuel surcharge on products delivered at home.
That will ultimately mean higher prices passed along to customers at Peninsula grocery and retail establishments.
“That helps defray the cost, but the customers don’t like it,” Steve Kennedy, co-owner of Atlas Trucking Inc. in Port Angeles, said of fuel surcharges.
With a fleet of 25 trucks and 35 employees, Kennedy’s company mainly hauls paper and wood products.
Kennedy said Atlas buys its diesel in bulk, storing it in a 12,000-gallon tank.
“It’s kind of a gamble,” he said about determining when to fill the tank.
Kennedy said the price of diesel has actually fluctuated downward in the past two weeks to $2.30.
Drivers are being asked not to idle their trucks, and mechanics are doing their part to make the vehicles as fuel-efficient as possible, he said.
‘Squeeze the margin’
Eric Flodstrom, owner of Puget Sound Transfer, said despite the fuel surcharge option, high prices still “squeeze the margin.”
“We can pass it along somewhat with fuel surcharges. But fuel surcharges don’t cover the empty miles,” said Flodstrom, whose company has operated for 20 years in Port Angeles and has 11 trucks in its fleet.
Empty miles are those without a load, said Flodstrom, whose trucks move merchandise for retailers between the Peninsula, Seattle and Tacoma.
His company delivers to such companies as Swain’s General Store and Nippon Paper Industries USA Co. Ltd., owners of the paper mill on Port Angeles Harbor
“We can only beef up the efficiency. There’s not a whole lot you can do,” said Flodstrom, whose trucks have covered about 500,000 miles this year so far.
He said retail items to the Peninsula’s West End may be delayed until a full load is ready for delivery.
