HALL COUNTY, Ga. — At the huge truck deport known as the Corporate Drop Yard in Hall County, hundreds of tractor trailers are in and out every day.
Wednesday is the latest day of a continuing crisis.
“This is probably the worst thing that has happened in trucking since 2017,” Brian Banks told Channel 2’s Berndt Petersen.
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A driver shortage then, a diesel price explosion now.
Banks is the Chief Operating Officer of Shoreline Transfer.
They haul poultry products in big rigs across the lower 48, also called the contiguous United States, and Canada.
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The cost to fuel their semis has jumped 62% since January.
They pay, their customers pay, then we pay.
“Everything we touch has been on a truck at some point. So, yeah. It is going to trickle down to the consumer,” company Founder Aaron Conner told Channel 2 Action News.
Conner says their 50 semis get six miles to the gallon. It takes a gallon an hour to keep the refrigerated trailers cool.
That comes out to 2,800 gallons of diesel a day, which, right now, costs $5.64 per gallon.
Banks said that puts his metro area hauler company at the mercy of a global conflict.
“I was never a very political person for a long time. But now I try to keep an eye on what’s going on overseas and the Middle East. It seems like Friday, everything is fine. On Monday it has gone to hell,” Banks said.
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