$6 DIESEL… AND YOUR FUEL SURCHARGE IS SCREWING YOU | BRAKE CHECK

Charles Gracie (0:00)

Welcome back to The Loading Zone.

Diesel just punched through a $6.52 per gallon. That's bad enough. But when you buy the fuel, are you getting screwed twice?

Because when you buy the fuel, and again, you have to deal with the surcharge, and again, because there's other things happening in your business, could you be losing more? Your margins might be disappearing. Carriers start cutting, drivers start looking, and somehow, the carrier is still left with the bill. The day still goes on. Today, we're finding out where the money is disappearing and how to stop the bleeding. I'm Charles Gracie, this is Brake Check, and it's time to check your mirrors because it's Thursday, and we're here, up first today. We're going to have Brad Hackett, the Director of Recruiting and Safety at Jett Express, trying to keep good drivers in the seat while $6 plus diesel tries to eat everything around their paycheck. Then, Matt Cartwright, CEO of Magnus Technologies, bringing the numbers on how outdated fuel surcharge math can quietly cost carriers some serious money. One guy protects the people. Another guy protects the math. At $6.52 a gallon as a national average, you better get both right. It's time to go full stop. But while you're at it, if you're trying to keep more of your money, run smarter and stay ahead of the nonsense in trucking, hit like, subscribe and follow for your top freight cash trucking news and conversations with actual teeth right here on FreightWaves. And if you want to get off the screen and in the room, F3 is right around the corner in Chattanooga. Use promo code TAKE20 to take 20% off today's current pricing. That's TAKE20 and we'll see you live in Chattanooga. But before we get serious, it's time to check today's daily pileup.

Now there's a lot of crazy stuff happening out there. There's no shortage of content to put out. Everyone's showing pie charts. We like to show you what's happening on the social media realm. So let's look at this one right here, because this guy did not know he can't go there.

SPEAKER_2 (2:37)

No f**king way, dude.

Charles Gracie (2:43)

Oh, he f**king made it.

Brad Hackett (2:46)

No f**king way, dude.

Charles Gracie (2:52)

Oh, he f**king made it. That's right. But while that's happening, check out this cleanup in the hammer lane.

Yeah, I think Rob Carpenter said it perfectly when he said up is for work, down is for commuting. But hey, I think there's a training module out there for that. But hey, let's talk about grabbing a gear and hammering down and making a statement like this guy right here.

There's so many statements being made on that rig. I don't know where to start. Where would you start? Make sure to sound off in the comments and let us know. But we're going to go boots on the ground. We got some breaking news. That's right, our guy Larry is reporting in on the trucker strike.

SPEAKER_4 (3:50)

Man, we can't afford it, bruh.

SPEAKER_5 (3:55)

For real?

SPEAKER_4 (3:58)

I mean, we'll see what happens if I like to sit down, but...

SPEAKER_5 (4:02)

Yeah, do you think it will change anything?

SPEAKER_4 (4:06)

Nah, we got to get too many to strike out. It's going to take a lot of us to strike out. We can't really blame the ones that are having to keep running right now. We got a lot of drivers that are f***ing break down away from business closing, so we can't really blame these guys.

That's the way the game is. We got to figure it out another way.

SPEAKER_5 (4:28)

The strike ain't going to really do it. What's that truck down?

First part of June. Oh, for real?

SPEAKER_4 (4:34)

I usually shut down for the winter.

SPEAKER_5 (4:36)

I got to though.

SPEAKER_4 (4:37)

What you thinking about that strike?

SPEAKER_5 (4:39)

You think it will do anything?

We too, we too divided, bro. We too divided. I don't think, I think it might be...

SPEAKER_4 (4:48)

What you think we need? What you think we need is truck drivers?

SPEAKER_5 (4:51)

I think it's going to be a few select that might do it, but we as a whole, believe these larger companies, they're still going to be there.

SPEAKER_4 (5:05)

Yeah. That's why I said. How long y'all been truckin?

SPEAKER_5 (5:09)

I've been driving now 22 years.

SPEAKER_4 (5:11)

What about you?

SPEAKER_5 (5:12)

I've been truckin for 23 years. Have y'all heard about that trucker strike?

SPEAKER_4 (5:16)

Yeah.

I'm worried, but I don't know how real it is. Would you do it? I'm confident. I'd go home, yeah.

SPEAKER_5 (5:24)