Investigation of Methodologies Used by Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) Motor Carriers to Determine Fuel Surcharges
Researcher(s)
Principal investigator: John L. Kent, Missouri State University
Other authors: Keith B. Grant
Project status
Completed
Start date: 04/01/06
End date: 06/30/07
Publications
Project web page: http://www.ctre.iastate.edu/mtc/projects/fuelsurcharge.htm
Report: August 2007, http://www.intrans.iastate.edu/reports/ltlcarriers.pdf 207 kb (*pdf)
Related publications: Investigation of Methodologies Used by Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) Motor Carriers to Determine Fuel Surcharges 89 kb *pdf (Tech transfer summary) August 2007
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Sponsor(s)/partner(s)
Sponsor(s):Midwest Transportation Consortium
About the research
Abstract: Fuel surcharge policies are utilized by transportation companies to transfer the expense associated with fuel prices to their customers. As fuel surcharges have become a significant portion of the expenses on transportation invoices, an increasing number of shippers are expressing more interest in these policies. The objective of this study is to discover how less-than-truckload (LTL) carriers develop and utilize fuel surcharge policies to recover their fuel expenses. Thirty-nine top LTL carriers were called on to explain their perspectives and methodologies with regard to fuel surcharge policies. Part-to-whole qualitative analysis was conducted to summarize responses from a standardized interview protocol. In addition, 25 published fuel surcharge policies were obtained and analyzed to explore the disparities among LTL fuel surcharge policies. Findings show that, while carriers were reluctant to discuss their fuel surcharge development, in practice there were two primary methodologies that left all carriers with very similar fuel surcharge policies.