LINCOLN, Neb. (KOLN) – Diesel prices in Nebraska are now at a record high, averaging $5.96 Monday, adding some challenges for companies that use trucks.
Kent Grisham, with the Nebraska Trucking Association, is worried about how the high diesel prices will affect future generations.
“It’s actually likely that we will see some of the smaller operations, one-truck owner-operators, fleets that are particularly small that simply can’t handle that kind of rapid and overwhelming fuel inflation,” Grisham said.
That concern extends beyond business to his family, too.
“I know that my family, my grandchildren, These kinds of prices are going to be affecting everything for them well into the future,” Grisham said. “We can’t afford the cost of food going up as much as it has, let alone the cost of fuel.”
Monday night at Shoemaker’s Travel Center, the cost of a gallon of diesel was $5.99, impacting truck drivers like Ben Denny.
“It hurts everybody and I’m just in there with everybody,” Denny said. “I drive slower. I meet my on-time deliveries. I hold it between there and 68 and just keep a conscious awareness of what I’m doing to maintain less diesel use.”
Higher diesel prices are impacting the Food Bank of Lincoln, too.
“We’ve been watching these costs since the beginning of the year and if it continues at this pace, this will be our highest year on record in the last four years for fuel costs,” Michaella Kumke, the CEO, said. “Anything that goes into anything beyond food, I mean, that takes away from our food budget.”
For some, these prices could just be too much.
“The thing of it is the higher the prices, the harder it is to make a living, or make a successful living,” Denny said.
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