It’s no surprise that oil drives our economy and the transportation industry, but what is surprising to some is the complex system that is behind fuel prices and availability. Recently, two issues have been building that threaten the price and availability of diesel fuel for the transportation industry.

California has long been a supporter of more environmental protection and clean initiatives. The state’s recent plan targets carbon use and supports a cap-and-trade market. While these two initiatives will benefit the environment, their effects on the trucking industry could be disastrous.

Don’t get us wrong, we are all about going green and helping our environment, but those plans must be weighed against the cost to business and our economy. Fuel, like every other commodity, operates in a strict supply and demand function. When left to its own devices, the free market will balance the cost and availability of fuel by its demand and price, which buyers are willing to pay. This formula becomes skewed and inefficient when outside forces adjust pricing or availability.

California’s actions specifically target the cost of diesel fuel. According to a recent report released by the California Trucking Association, the state’s programs geared toward reducing carbon use, and off-setting that, (which is burned,) is expected to raise diesel prices by $2.22/gallon by the year 2020. This change would put California diesel at $6.69/gallon, or $2.33/gallon more than surrounding states. Technology, to curb fuel use and emissions, is important to our society, but these changes have too high of a burden on California truckers and those out-of-state carriers serving California’s shipping harbors.

While California faces price changes from policy, the Northeast United States is faced with changes to the other side of the coin, supply. Recently, a number of refineries have been closing or have been slated to close in the region. Refineries process the crude oil into various fuels and oil-based products. While other refineries may be able to support the increased demand, current pipeline capacity will not be able to support the increased need.

What does this mean? This means increased imports and expensive transportation of fuel to feed the Northeast’s diesel needs. Some hope is in sight though. Recently, Transportation Topics reported on the purchase of two shuttered Pennsylvania refineries. One, purchased by Delta Air Lines will be used to supply jet fuel to some of Delta’s large Northeast hubs. While jet fuel is created from the same part of crude oil as diesel, this purchase is expected to release some jet fuel burdens on other area refineries, allowing more diesel fuel to be produced.

As our country continues to push forward and seek new energy solutions, we must remember our current transportation infrastructure to ensure decisions are made with the best interest of our transportation needs considered.

One day you decide you want to open a shipping company. You buy a truck, a trailer, find space to operate, line up your first customer and stock the truck as full as possible and head on down the road, right? Wrong. There are a number of issues and requirements that must be addressed first, one of them being weight.

Currently, the federal government limits the weight of commercial vehicles to 80,000 pounds on the federal interstate system, except for a few states who have received exceptions for up to 100,000 pounds. A number of groups are urging the government to increase weight limits on these roads nationwide. But why do we care about weight?

Weight has a surprising impact on nearly every facet of the transportation life cycle – from cost, to safety, to engineering.

Drift back to high school physics. Force, in its simplest definition, is that which causes an object to change its velocity, or speed. This is usually calculated by mass (weight of the object) multiplied by the acceleration, therefore, the more something weighs, the more force it requires to achieve the same acceleration. While the specific calculations needed to move these trucking trailers is best left to engineers, it is easy to see that increased weight means extra engine power and therefore, more fuel is required. The harder engines work, the more they consume and the more a fleet has to pay to feed them. Whether it is higher speed or added weight, small changes can have a big impact on the bottom line and fleets must balance increased fuel use with the increased efficiency of running heavier loads.

But how does additional weight and fuel impact safety? Well, that same equation that shows more weight takes more power to move also shows that more weight means more power required to stop. Often this stopping power equates to stopping distance. It’s no new concept that the faster you drive the more time it takes to stop; the same is true with weight, the more weight behind you the longer the distance needed to slow down. This can have a profound impact in split-second situations where a tractor-trailer may need to reduce speed quickly for their own (and others’) safety.

What does this mean for engineering? Roads are designed to handle a certain amount of wear and tear created from volume of traffic, freezing and thawing, and yes, weight. The closer traffic weight gets to the designed maximum weight limits, the quicker a road breaks down. While an increase to maximum commercial weights can be changed with a simple signature of Congress, the amount of weight roads can handle is not so easily improved. And the impact increased weight would have on road design and maintenance costs must be considered before changes are made.

Recently though, the transportation sector has something to be excited about. The U.S. Department of Transportation will soon be teaming with state agencies to study what effects trucks running heavier than currently allowed have on safety. This is an integral step in properly analyzing the increase in weight so many fleets and industry groups are pushing for.

After all, knowledge is power, and we’re not just saying that because we’re data geeks either.

We live in the age of technology. Everywhere we look it is easy to see the impact that technology has had and the amount of data we now have at our fingertips. But what about data overload? Are data and information the same? And how does advice play into the equation?

To put it simply, data is the raw numbers and facts that come from any sort of research or analysis, meanwhile, information is data that has been processed into a usable form and advice is a recommendation based on that information. For example, knowing that a truck is going 45 mph is data; knowing the truck is going 20 mph above the speed limit on that road and is the sixth time that driver has been recorded speeding, would be information. Advice uses that information to create a recommendation that the driver should be enrolled in additional driver safety training.

What does all of this mean for fleets? With today’s technological advancements, fleets have an ever increasing amount of data that is available to them, but all of the data in the world is no use if you can’t process it into usable information. It is easy to fall victim to data overload and overlook what has the potential to be beneficial to the business and its drivers. Through telematics providers, fleets can not only unlock new data, but can receive information that helps their managers develop important advice to improve operations.

Think about what data your fleet receives, is it being turned into helpful information? What information would better help you run your fleet? We’d like to know. Please comment below with the data and information that is most beneficial to your fleet.

Throughout the U.S., states are trying to balance budgets and solve shortfalls. Often, this comes at the cost of fuel taxes being redirected to fill holes in non-transportation budgets. The result is an aging transportation infrastructure with little to no upkeep. As more and more states feel the pressures placed on their budgets and infrastructure from reduced revenue and increasing expenses, leaders look to new solutions to support decreasing transportation budgets.

One (not so new) solution many states are now considering is turning interstates into toll roads. In the beginning, toll roads were quite common in the U.S. and remained popular throughout the 19th century and into the 20th. With improvements to the national and state transportation systems and the 1956 Federal-Aid Highway Act, toll roads slowly became the exception, not the standard. Today, toll roads only account for a quarter of one percent of roads in the U.S. Yet, if state legislators have their way, that number is about to grow.

As states such as Connecticut and Pennsylvania look to create new toll roads, and current toll roads raise fares, what impact will this have on transportation? For the average consumer driver, that answer is probably little, for the commercial driver it means so much more. Most roads considered for tolls are important to the trucking industry, which is already battling rising fuel costs. Already having to pay diesel and excise taxes, most see toll roads as double taxation, and all will be impacted. With tight operating margins, fleets may not be able to raise rates to make up for the extra cost tolls bring, or may risk losing their competitive advantage. Additionally, to avoid the added costs, drivers will begin using more local roads, which increases crash risk, as these roads are not designed for heavy commercial traffic use.

When states are faced with these difficult decisions and budgetary issues, it’s important to remember all the parties who will be affected, and the importance that our transportation infrastructure plays in the health of our economy.