It's truly amazing how quickly my wallet is affected by what's going on half away around the world. With the increased liklihood of U.S. involvement in Syria, crude oil rose to an 18 month high last week. The fuel prices at the pump quickly followed as they always do. The fuel network that I belong to sends out emails each day informing us about the midnight price change and it's usually minimal, often fractions of a penny a gallon. However, this past week, the changes were a 7 cent a gallon increase one day and then a 5 cent a gallon increase the very next.
The bottom line concerning the increased market fluctuation this week: I made less money! That's why the Team Run Smart community is more important than ever. Fuel is our #1 expense and we need to make getting better fuel economy our #1 priority! I don't know what percentage of owner-operators get fuel surcharges; I don't, so the vast swings of the fuel price pendulum are fully absorbed by my wallet. The easiest way to increase fuel economy is to slow down. I know most drivers hate it, but it's the quickest and easiest way to start saving money. This week, I made a trip to south Florida and back. The speed limit is 70 mph for most of the way and I set my cruise control to 64 mph. I've found this to be my truck's "sweet spot." I think I may have passed 5 vehicles on the whole trip down and back. Everyone else must be buying fuel for $1.50 a gallon based on the way they were driving.
This week, make getting better fuel economy your #1 priority. I have a fellow car hauler who I 
compete with on fuel economy. We check our numbers against each other everyday and experiment at different speeds to learn what's best. If you're a company driver who is thinking about becoming an owner-operator, start driving your company truck as if it's yours. Try and squeeze as many miles out of a gallon of liquid gold (diesel) that you can. When you make the leap and buy your own truck, you'll already be ahead of a lot of current owner-operators who don't focus on fuel economy and probably won't be in our industry much longer. Ever Forward!