Area Fleets Feel Fuel Pinch

As of May 3, gas prices had increased 16 times in the last 18 weeks totaling about a 31-cent hike for the Midwest, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration.

National retail prices of on-highway diesel, a number national truckload carriers such as Lowell’s J.B. Hunt Transportation Inc. follow, had risen 21 cents a gallon in the last 12 months, as of April 26. But it’s not just the big boys who are taking a hit.

Mel Collier, operations manager of Collier Drug Stores in Fayetteville, said his company fills up its seven-car delivery fleet every other day and spends about $600 per month to keep its delivery vehicles rolling. That’s up $100-$125 or about 25 percent from the same time last year.

“It used to take about 12 bucks to fill up a Honda, now it takes about eighteen,” Collier said.

Each car owned by Colliers, which has six locations across Northwest Arkansas with two more under construction, racks up 25,000 to 35,000 miles a year. Five are gas-powered Honda Civics that average 25 miles per gallon, Collier said. He plans to add three more Civics to the fleet in mid-May.

Collier said the company hasn’t passed the price hike along to its customers. The chain only raises its prices, he said, when pharmaceutical manufacturers raise theirs.

Philip May, general manager of Lindsey Hauling, said all 20 of the 16-cubic-yard dump trucks in his fleet burn about 100 gallons of diesel per day. Pricier gas has caused a 10 to 12 percent increase in Lindsey’s operational costs during the last six months, he said.

“The rising fuel cost are also driving up the cost of growth in Northwest Arkansas,” May said.

May said his company has had to pass some of the fuel cost increase on to its customers.

Lindsey Hauling, a division of Lindsey & Associates Inc., is based in Rogers and moves fill dirt from mining operations to development sites in Northwest Arkansas.