Fuel rates that are more than $1 per gallon cheaper than they were a year ago are great news for truck drivers, but that may not translate into a big savings for truck rates.

At least that is the view of Paul Kazan, president of Interstate Transportation Systems Inc. in the Bronx, NY. “Fuel costs are only one component of the rate,” said the longtime transportation expert.

Kazan said that the biggest cost factor in the transporting of fresh produce is supply and demand, and that is not going to change regardless of the cost of fuel. “The lower fuel rate does allow there to be a lower floor,” he said. “A trucker who theoretically won’t go any lower than $6,000 (for a specific cross country trip), might reduce that price $400 or so when fuel is cheap.”

But fresh produce shipments typically get a premium for the trucker because of many other factors involved in the haul, including wait times at each end of the delivery. When the volume of product is up and the shipper and receiver need a truck, it is supply and demand that will dictate the price, not the cost of fuel. Additionally, Kazan said more conservative hours of service regulations enacted over the past few years are limiting the turns a trucker can make each month, further driving prices up. “Truckers used to be able to make three cross-country trips a month; now they can only make one-and-a-half. Somebody has to pay for that decrease.”

He did note that the U.S. Congress did relax some wait times between hours of service late in last year’s session. Kazan said that will help the cross-country drivers. But he lamented that getting drivers to do the long hauls is becoming less attractive every year, and it is harder to find drivers willing to make that run. “Let’s face it: it’s not a very attractive job. If they go cross country, they are going to be gone from home for two weeks. Then they come home, say hello, have that conjugal visit and are back on the road again.”

More and more professional drivers, he said, are opting for shorter runs of 1,000 miles or less so they can spend more time at home. The improving economy is allowing these truckers to be a bit more choosey in the lanes they drive or in the jobs they take. The construction industry tends to pull from the same labor pool, and that job can be a lot more attractive with regard to hours and time at home.

Kazan said the trucking industry is currently being served by immigrants looking for a better life. “We used to get the good ol’ boys from the South, but that source (of drivers) stopped probably in the 1990s. Now we have a lot of Sikhs, Russians and Eastern Europeans looking to get a piece of the American dream.”

He indicated that they start in the trucking industry and are able to make a pretty good paycheck without a formal education. However, many of them move on and find different jobs, especially as the economy heats up.

While Kazan took more of a 40,000-foot view, Lance Dichter of LD Logistics, also in the Bronx, NY, took a much narrower look at the current state of the industry: “Right now there is a lack of vegetables coming out of the West. I see no truck shortage problems for the January-through-March time frame,” he said in mid-January.

He added that the low fuel costs are very good for the trucker.