Rising gas prices "hitting the bottom line" of this Pennsylvania trucking company
For more than 40 years, Mustang Expediting in Aston, Delaware County, has been transporting household items and materials across the Northeast.
The small company has 26 trucks in its fleet, which run on diesel fuel, and the general manager says profitability is practically running on empty with rising gas prices.
"Fuel is probably our top three costs in this company, and these increases are really hitting the bottom line of small trucking companies across America," said Wes Stratford, who is the general manager of Mustang Expediting.
For the first time in more than three years, the national average price of gas has jumped to more than $4 a gallon.
At the Sunoco station on Township Line Road in Chester, a gallon of regular was $4.19.
According to AAA, in the Philadelphia area, prices are up $1 a gallon, or about 34%, since the end of February when the conflict in the Middle East began.
"In the Philadelphia 5-county area it is now costing motorists between $12 and $16 more to fill up their tank than it did just one month ago," Jana Tidwell, of AAA Mid-Atlantic, said.
Jasmine Glick works for a ride share company and drives for a living, so she is feeling the impact.
"I could fill up my gas tank with about $20-$25, now I'm more like $45," Glick said.
Stratford said he is watching the company's cash flow daily, and with more money being spent on fuel the increase, it will be have to be passed on to their customers, and then ultimately the consumer as well.
"So the daily homeowner is going to feel it, I mean, we feel it now, everybody feels it now, and this is just going to increase," Stratford said.
With no timeframe on how long prices will continue to rise, Stratford said he has pulled back on hiring new employees and investing in equipment for the time being.