American Trucking Associations Asks for Biweekly Fuel Price Reports.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. -- The American Trucking Associations and its President and CEO Bill Graves today asked Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman to direct the Energy Information Administration to report fuel prices twice weekly until fuel price volatility eases.

"In light of very volatile fuel prices, it would be extremely helpful if you directed EIA to report prices twice a week until fuel pricing becomes more stable," Graves wrote in a Sept. 6 letter to Secretary Bodman. "This change would provide the trucking industry with more accurate fuel pricing and help it make better business decisions."

Rising fuel prices have been a significant burden on the trucking industry. For many motor carriers, fuel often represents the second-highest expense after labor and can account for as much as 25 percent of total operating costs. The industry, which consumes over 35 billion gallons of diesel each year, is on pace to spend an unprecedented $80 billion on diesel fuel this year, $18 billion more than a year earlier. That follows a $10 billion increase in fuel costs over 2003.

This is significant because more than 564,000 motor carriers in the United States transport nearly 70 percent of tonnage carried by all modes of domestic freight transportation. Trucks hauled 9.8 billion tons of freight in 2004, collecting $671 billion dollars, or just under 88 percent, of total revenues earned by all transport modes.

The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its fifty affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.