‘It’s just this extreme time’

P.E.I. trucking company copes with high diesel prices by hiring fuel co-ordinator

The high cost of diesel fuel has one P.E.I. trucking company adjusting how it outfits its vehicles.

Andy Keith, president and CEO of Seafood Express Transport, has made changes to the company's trucks and staffing. He met with Saltwire Network on May 17 to talk about how his business is coping.

“(Fuel's) been continually increasing,” said Keith.

About a year ago, Keith hired a full-time fuel co-ordinator to watch prices along the company's routes and direct drivers to stations with the lowest prices.

It might mean giving up the free shower offered by the truck stop across the road, but it could save the company hundreds of dollars at the pumps, he said. Even a onecent-per-litre saving adds up fast over the company's fleet of 87 tractor-trailers.

Fuel surcharges – which are added on to the freight cost — help, but they aren't keeping up, he said.

Surcharges have doubled since the start of the year and are more than triple what they were PRE-COVID, but Keith says fuel prices go up so frequently the surcharge is always behind.

“Fuel's not our only increase,” said Keith. “All our generic parts are (up). Tires, pretty much everything is increasing around us.”

Tires are up 25 per cent, and unlike fuel, tires aren't something likely to go back down, he said.

“Hopefully as things get back to normal, we'll see fuel prices go down close to where they were,” said Keith.

ACROSS THE REGION

At the Atlantic Provinces Trucking Association, executive director Jean-marc Picard said costs are up all over the region and are rippling down the supply chain.

“It's going to end up on customers' backs — and consumers,” he said in a phone interview with Saltwire Network May 17. “It's the supply chain entirely that's struggling.”

The association was founded in 1956 and is an Atlantic-wide, non-profit industry association formed to

advocate for advancements in the commercial trucking industry in Atlantic Canada.

Picard said trucking companies are hunkering down and managing cash flow the best they can. Each company is unique in how they'll decide to deal with the cost of diesel, he said.

“There's not much we can do; it's regulated,” said Picard.

He added that the fuel surcharges should be a help and there are some federal subsidies coming for modifications to improve fuel efficiency, but it will be a while before there's a return on the investment.

To cope, Seafood Express decided to expand the business. Keith hopes to increase his fleet from 85 to 90 temperature-controlled tractortrailers this year.

“It's a volume thing. In order to deal with increased costs, the more volume, the more miles that you drive, the less cost per mile,” he said.

To make those miles as fuel-efficient as possible, Seafood Express has changed the engine parameters so they idle lower and therefore consume less fuel. The company also installed auxiliary power units, so drivers can use the air conditioning and electronics in their bunks without idling the truck engine overnight, and they've added aerodynamic attachments like side skirts, trailer wings and wheel covers.

“And just a lot of other things to reduce our fuel spend, to try to get the trucks gliding through the air as efficiently as possible,” said Keith. “Ultimately it's good. We're doing what we can to reduce the amount of fuel that we spend and, in return, that reduces our carbon footprint as well. But it's just this extreme time.”