World Grain - November 2010 - 72

FEATURE: PUSHED TO THE LIMIT

harvest, such as a lack of trucks available
for millfeed hauling in the Southwest
during the fall row crop harvest.

$2.33 per mile, up 8% from last year.
The department's national grain
truck usage index was unchanged from

In addition to increased demand, rail and truck shipping costs
for grain and other products also have risen because of higher
fuel costs, especially for diesel fuel.

The USDA's truck grain transport cost
indicator, based on diesel fuel prices, was
201% of the year 2000 base of 100 as of
Oct. 6, up from 173% a year earlier.
In its most recent Grain Transportation Quarterly Update, the USDA said
the national average cost to haul grain
by truck for 25 miles was $4.27 per
mile in the second quarter, down 9%
from the same period in 2009, the average for a 100-mile haul was $2.41 per
mile, down 6%, and for 200 miles was

a year ago during the second quarter,
but the truck availability index, which
tracks the perceived ease of hiring a
truck by grain elevators, was 2.3 during the quarter compared with 1.7 a
year earlier, with 1 being very easy and
5 being very difficult to hire trucks.
In addition to increased demand, rail
and truck shipping costs for grain and
other products also have risen because of
higher fuel costs, especially for diesel fuel.
The U.S. on-highway diesel price,

Groin Ti

Monitoring

used by railroads to determine fuel
surcharges as well as directly affecting
trucking costs, averaged $3 a gallon as
of Oct. 5, up 16% from a year ago and
the highest since late May, according to
the Energy Information Administration
of the U.S. Department of Energy. Average prices dipped below $2.90 a gallon
only once since mid-March, compared
with 2009 when the weekly U.S. average never rose above $2.81.
As a result, railroad fuel surcharges
also are up considerably from last year,
adding to the cost of shipping grain either to interior locations or to export
elevators.
Ron Sterk is assistant editor of Milling & Baking
News, sister publication of World Grain. He can
be reached at rsterk@sosland.com.
We want to hear from you - Send comments and
inquiries to worldgrain@sosland.com. For reprints of
WG articles, e-mail reprints@sosland.com.

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World Grain - November 2010

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