Donna Weinrich, president of Weinrich Truck Line, Inc. in Hinton, talks to Jake Milton, her grandson and a salesman for the company, about the price of fueling their semi fleet. [Click to enlarge]

With diesel surpassing $4 a gallon, trucking operations as small as one person and as large as 1,000 drivers are closing down and parking their semis.

"In the first quarter of 2008, more than 1,000 companies declared bankruptcy," said Steve Schuster, the president of trucking company Schuster Co. in Le Mars.

Last week, the national average for a gallon of diesel was $4.70. The 2007 yearly average was $2.77. A nearly 100 percent increase is a tough bullet to bite, especially with rigs that get six miles to the gallon.

"When it costs 75-80 cents per mile just in fuel, that adds up very fast," said Schuster, whose fleet includes 300 semi-tractors.

But before you think this is a pity party for the trucking industry, check your own pocketbook.

Jake Milton, a salesman at his family's business, Weinrich Truck Line, Inc. in Hinton, said if shipping companies are hurting, consumers are, too.

"You're talking things that affect everybody in the country -- food, clothes, lumber. Everything is touched by a truck at some point," he said.

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Weinrich Truck Line's 50 rigs deliver everything from furniture to refined soybean oil used to make french fries for McDonald's restaurants.

"If it costs us more, somebody is going to pay for it, and it comes down to the person at the store," Milton said.

Most of the businesses that contract with truck lines pay a fuel surcharge to help cover the shipping costs, explained Donna Weinrich, the Hinton company's president. That extra cost trickles down to consumers, too.

On top of high fuel prices, the trucking industry saw shipping demand dip with the economy.

"We're the first to see a downward trend," Milton said

People cutting back purchases, whether it's lumber for a new house, furniture, or even potato chips, translates into less loads for trucks to carry.

Add to that increased costs for truck and trailer parts.

"If diesel goes up, tires go up, along with all petroleum products," Weinrich said.

Steel and materials cost more, too, Schuster said.

On the road, truckers encounter more toll roads as states try to draw in enough money to maintain highways.

While car drivers might be able to cover a toll fee with loose change, the toll for semis can be more than $100.

Pennsylvania is looking into leasing a portion of the Pennsylvania Turnpike, a toll road that crosses the state, to a private corporation. That idea is a little frightening to trucking companies because private corporations can chose their rates, Milton said. However, the Pennsylvania lease would include certain limits.

"Once one state does this, the rest may follow," Milton added.

Fuel cost combined with these other factors make for a pretty small margin of profit, Weinrich said.

Milton agreed.

"If you have to replace a tire, there goes your profit. That's how thin it is," he said.

Milton believes the trucking industry has been headed for an upset like this. Prices were lower than they should have been, and companies started up or added more trucks, he explained. With more trucks competing to haul goods, prices dropped for shipping. Until now.

"This is basically the industry correcting itself," he said. "Something was going to cause this to happen, it just happened to be fuel prices."

Major trucking groups are predicting that soon there will be more freight than trucks, giving companies like Weinrich Truck Line and Schuster Co. an edge in the market.

"If the economy starts getting traction, there will be a lot of freight to move," Schuster said.

Milton agreed.

"We're also the first to see the upward trend," he said. "When commodities start moving, we'll have more shipments."

But getting there may take time.

"Hopefully you're still in business. Hopefully you hang on long enough to ride the wave," Milton said.

Companies that stick it out may still face just as high fuel prices, though.

"I've seen cycles before," said Weinrich, who's been with the company since her husband started it in 1962. "But I've never seen fuel like this."

Weinrich said some people are predicting improvements for shipping companies by the end of the year. But, she said, that could change.

Even if the trucking industry evens itself out, customers may still be paying higher prices at the store. As long as fuel prices stay high, trucking companies will keep passing on part of that cost, which eventually trickles down to shoppers.

"Fuel is pretty much driving the market," Milton said. "If fuel goes down, it should help."

In the meantime, Weinrich Truck Line, Inc. is already making adjustments to stay viable.

"We're cutting out as many 'empty miles' as we can," Weinrich noted. That means only hauling loads to locations where they can find someone to pay them to haul something back on the return trip.

"It's getting harder to find loads that pay enough," Milton said.

Weinrich Truck Line is also cutting back on its coverage area. The company has delivered goods to Canada and all of the United States except Hawaii and Alaska. In the last month, the company management decided to discontinue runs to the Northwest, including Oregon, Idaho and Washington.

Schuster Co. in Le Mars is also making adjustments.

The company's trucks are getting an add-on: an alternate power unit (APU).

"It keeps the truck from idling," Schuster explained. "When it idles it uses a gallon of fuel an hour. If a truck sits for 10 hours, that's more than $40 to sit there."

An APU cuts the fuel usage down to 2/10 of a gallon per hour.

Truck drivers may keep their truck idling for heat or air conditioning when they pull off the road for a break. For example, Iowa law requires at least an eight-hour sleep break in every 24 hours for truck drivers who have berths in their cab.

It may not seem like much, but the APUs will save gallons of diesel at a time when fuel expenses are formidable.

Schuster said the company is making adaptations like this and looking toward the future.

"It may be a little rough, but we're hoping to weather the storm," he said.