Consumers are feeling the effects of high gas prices at more places than just the gas pump. Trucking companies, for example, charge more for shipping and that raises the price of the product of the shelf. Iowa State University Business Professor Michael Crum studies the trucking industry and says the impact probably won’t be as drastic as it was one year ago.
He says when fuel prices spiked last year, the trucking industry was operating at near capacity, so some individual companies turned away business because it wasn’t profitable. Crum says that’s not the case this year, but notes that transportation is around six-percent of the delivered price on the average product.
He says fuel is 12 to 14-percent of the per-mile cost that trucking companies incur, “so we will feel it, there’s no doubt – when fuel costs increase, we as consumers will note it on the retail shelf.” Crum say the trucking industry delivers 80 to 85-percent of the nation’s freight.