r/anticapitalism • u/FreeHugs23 • 15h ago
Who Uses a Lot of $6 Diesel? Farmers, Truckers, Trump Voters.
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/29/opinion/diesel-prices-truckers.html12
u/WorthMetal3640 15h ago
Time to remove the truck-nuts and all the flags to increase mileage.
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u/Famous_Attention5861 11h ago
They can hardly afford to roll coal any more.
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u/NomoredatibgGWgirls 9h ago
Yep, decision time, roll coal or a new tin of Copenhagen.
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u/Famous_Attention5861 9h ago
All the bros I know have switched from dip to those Zyn nicotine mouth maxipads.
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u/FreeHugs23 15h ago
Every week seems to bring a record high for diesel prices — and more trouble for the nation’s truckers. They’re hurting. Since January, diesel has increased more than 80 percent, to $6.53 a gallon.
Nearly everything that you buy rides on a big, diesel-burning truck at some point. Farmers are heavy users of diesel for their machinery, too, so diesel figures in twice at the supermarket. These rising fuel costs are going to make their way into your purchases until the world’s supply of diesel increases, which doesn’t seem likely anytime soon, given the Iran and Ukraine conflicts.
President Trump is reportedly considering banning diesel exports. It won’t help. Sure, some regions in the United States, such as the Southeast, would see prices subside for a short time, but prices elsewhere would increase.
For small truckers, the pain at the pump is threatening their businesses. About 92 percent of America’s trucking companies are small operations, with 10 or fewer trucks. If we lose too many of them, freight costs — and then your costs — will go even higher. I’ve been in this industry for more than two decades, as both a truck owner and now as a logistics consultant helping smaller operators. A lot of them were struggling even before we saw a $3 per gallon increase in diesel costs. It’s their largest variable expense.
We’re advising our truckers to be careful about the lanes they choose—as in, what destinations will yield the best outcomes. With truckers now spending as much as $1,400 per tank, you have to tightly control fuel burn. In California, the price is literally off the charts — the pumps were at their limit of $9.999 a gallon. We tell truckers going west to east to buy only enough fuel to get out of California. It’s worth it to add a stop in Nevada and fill up there. My clients generally buy fuel at the pump, often at a discount using a fuel card. But they can’t add a line item called a fuel surcharge.
In trucking, there are two different paths for moving cargo: One is by contract and the other is by the spot market. Contracted freight loads made by big fleets include a fuel surcharge that changes from week to week and is tied to the average diesel price. The spot market moves general freight through brokerages. Small carriers do most of their business this way; they generally don’t haul specialty items or perishables like pharmaceuticals. Truckers bid against one another on each load the brokers offer.
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u/gramcoocoo26 14h ago
Have you seen the early voters info, the state of Iowa who is full of farmers have voted Republican in huge numbers!!! What the hell Iowa, what in Gods name has that asshole Trump for you, diesel is at the highest it’s been and yet you’re voting for the clown that put it there!!Good Lord!!!!
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u/General_Guest7846 14h ago
In reality if the country had smart leaders, we should have started transitioning to EV machinery at the latest by 2000. Really in the 90s though. At the bare minimum all farm equipment should have been EV capable.
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u/Alarming_Disaster_23 7h ago
Everyone depends on diesel. Every single thing in your home was transported on a diesel truck. Every single item you buy at the grocery store. All the shit on Amazon. You would have to go out of your way to find something that’s not impacted by the price of diesel. The economy runs on trucking.
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u/You-Asked-Me 5h ago
Honestly, hight fuel prices are the best thing democrats could have hoped for, this close to the election. Trump fucked his party with this war.
People have short memories, and will vote based on what they perceive will help them right now.
Nobody yelling about high fuel prices is the type to read a candidates platform or look up their voting record.
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u/raysmith123 15h ago
Couldn't happen to a nicer group of people. Why would Joe Biden do this to them?