LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- With diesel prices well over $5 — and nearly $6 in some places — Louisville-based drivers said they're reeling and shoppers can expect to pay the price.
It can cost more than $1,000 to top off a semi truck with diesel right now, making it quite expensive for the trucks to transport products around the country. That's driving the costs of groceries up.
As bigger corporations dish out thousands of dollars weekly to fill up tanks, one local association says independent drivers and smaller companies are coming up dry.
"It's severely impacting their ability to provide for their family," said Rick Taylor of the Kentucky Trucking Association.
Taylor said his organization continues to assess the impacts of the skyrocketing fuel prices. He said the higher fuel prices go, the more consumers will be paying at the store.
He said it all comes back to fuel costs, and those are funds that trucking companies don't get to recuperate right away.
"The shippers — when they get paid is about 30-45 days out and now they're having to take on the extra cost of fuel and maintain that cost of fuel before they get paid," Taylor said.
"We're paying for fuel today," said William Hill of Hill Transportation. "We have to pay for it now, and we don't get paid back for it for 30 days. So that increase is just money we have to stick in the account. Fuel goes down, we'll get it back. If it doesn't, that's just money we have to invest in our business."
Hill Transportation has measures in place to make sure it can continue operations during this tough economy.
However, the 60% increase in fuel costs since January is not ideal for these companies, or the price of goods.
"Energy cost is a huge influence to how our economy is going to perform in the future," Hill said.
Many of these truckers and companies are now calling on the government to find the supply needed to bring the cost down.
"We need to understand as a country that we need to be self-sustaining," Hill said.
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