Fuel Surcharge has become quite a controversy over the past several years. For those in the industry only a few year you might assume this has always existed. Those around longer remember when there was no fuel surcharge, but those around as long as some of us remember the RCCR tariffs in place in the early 80's. What is this all about?
Since fuel is such a large cost factor in any transportation mode (for truck & barge it is multiple times higher percentage of total cost than by rail) once it lost stability years ago the carriers each determined they needed to have some mechanism to recoup that variable cost. The intent of the surcharge is only to recover the excess cost, not all the cost, or at least it should be. And there is the controversy-- do the carriers actually earn large profits from fuel surcharges or do they merely recover the excess costs as fuel prices fluctuate?
It is difficult to analyze since carriers have progressively increased their "base" rates on a regular basis, once a year or more often, which could include rolling in more up-to-date fuel costs as well as market pricing decisions. Plus some carriers have adjusted their program to determine fuel surcharges to apply or have several different programs and change which one applies to any individual rate publication. Most originally were percentage-based but have now converted to mileage-based.
The chart below shows the CSXT 8661 Per Mile Fuel Surcharges since April 2007.