Trucking With Trump

Truckers are ready for Trump:

Mike Kucharski, owner of JKC Trucking, which operates around 200 trucks, based out of Illinois, spoke about the struggles of the past four years. “I’m excited for the new administration, but I’m probably even more excited for the old one to leave. The last two to three years have been a real struggle for us.” The first blow Joe-Kamaa dealt to truckers came when fuel prices doubled. “Diesel is killing us,” said Mike. Faced with skyrocketing costs, trucking companies had two options: raise rates or absorb the losses. Knowing that a sharp increase in shipping costs would drive away customers, Mike and many others chose to eat the extra expense. “Profit has not been something that has worked. We’re going through a dark time. We haven’t made a profit.” Beyond higher fuel prices, the other problem with the Joe-Kamal administration was the push for stricter regulations and the shift to electric trucks. Mike points out that the batteries for electric trucks are heavy, reducing payload capacity by about 30%. Once again, that cost would be passed down to consumers. “Electric trucks are gonna be impractical and impossible to trade them for diesel,” Mike lamented. He pointed out that the US lacks the infrastructure to support fleets of electric trucks. Charging stations are few and far between, and the range of an electric truck is only about 300 miles, while a diesel truck can cover 500 – 700 miles a day. This means more trucks will need to be running just to keep food on the shelves. With diesel, Mike noted, it only takes about 30-40 minutes to fill up. In contrast, it takes about 8 to 12 hours to charge an electric truck’s battery, leading to costly delays.

Truckers are ready to roll back out...