Viral clip of man paying almost $1,000 at the pump
“Just move in, you just paid rent/mortgage.” said one TikTok commenter.
But drivers across the country are facing even higher prices, as they transport ninety percent of the country’s food and more than seventy percent of its medicine and medical supplies.
When Dessert Becomes Desert
“Traditionally, food deserts are defined as living a mile or more away from access to fresh food. But what would surprise most Americans is that 75% of the country is in that exact boat… that is, without truckers the vast majority of the nation would be facing food scarcity.”
They say food is fuel, but as diesel prices have dramatically risen, Americans are quickly finding that fuel also means food. From farm to table, rising fuel prices are making food unaffordable.
Food shortages?
From ranches to rigs those diesel prices are impacting the public in real time. Higher prices at the pump get passed on to consumers: Kevin Burch, the Chairman of the American Trucking Association said, “It definitely is passed on to the consumer in higher freight rates… Could be a week, could be two weeks,” said Burch.
Some analysts are even saying there’s a possibility of food shortages.
States Work to End Fuel Taxes
Recently, CDLLife covered the current crisis fuel presents for Owner Operators, potentially driving them out of business for good. And many state economies from Minnesota to Mississippi are feeling the strain.
Some states in an effort to offset these costs are working to lower fuel taxes. New York, for instance, is considering either suspending or eliminating fuel taxes altogether, with the potential to give carriers a big lift:
“For a semi-truck driver who fills up two standard size 150-gallon tanks once a day, the weekly savings would be $986.58. Over the span of a year, the savings per truck would be $51,302.16. If these savings were passed along to consumers, the savings could be significant.”
New York and New Jersey have the highest metropolitan density of truck drivers in the entire country and are paying some of the highest prices according to Triple-A.
In Diesel Deserts, Let Them Eat Tesla
Politicians and journalists alike are offering a different solution: Electric Vehicles. Even as the Minnesota economy is facing dire consequences of rising fuel, journalists are telling farmers, truckers, and citizens to go electric. But an electric tractor runs in the hundreds of thousands and a Tesla semi is $200,000. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said to purchase an EV, which averages $51,000.
A dairy farmer named Jon Patterson responded to a journalist reporting on the diesel crisis that, “He said it’s going to be a long time before he’s ready to invest in a new tractor, which can cost a few hundred thousand dollars and would need to run for an entire day in heavy field work, dragging big equipment.”
Whatever the solution, drivers can empathize with the man that has gone viral on Tiktok as he sings to a pump he’s filling up at: