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Already an expensive business, trucking got more expensive in the first few months of this year.
The market price of oil climbed, and retail diesel prices followed. The pump price in Calgary in late March was about $1.15 per litre, up more than 25 cents from a year earlier. Winnipeg prices were higher, $1.17 in late March 2011 versus 94 cents a year earlier. The price was still higher in Yellowknife at $1.25 (19 or 20 cents more than in 2011), and market watchers expected prices to climb.
And fuel costs are just the tip of the iceberg. A trucking firm with hundreds of tractors traveling more than 100 million kilometres annually has a dizzying multitude of costs to track, shipments to follow, and assets to watch over.
Fleet managers have tough jobs. Fortunately, innovative minds in the software sector have developed more than a few tools to assist in the pursuit of fiscal and operational excellence.
