NBC Nightly News Highlights Rising Fuel Price Effects on Consumers and Economy

NBC Nightly News Highlights Rising Fuel Price Effects on Consumers and Economy

ARLINGTON, Va., April 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NBC Nightly News last night underscored the dramatic effect rising fuel costs are having on the trucking industry and consumers in a segment titled "Food Inflation."

The report, delivered by CNBC reporter Erin Burnett, outlined how the cost of filling up a tractor trailer translates into higher prices for all consumer goods, including food.

Milk and bread prices, for example, have risen 25 percent and 16 percent, respectively, compared with a year earlier, according to the report.

NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams said: "Unless you have a trucker in the family, you may not know ... that it now costs $1,000 or more to fill the tanks of an 18 wheeler, that's for one fill up. Now, think of everything that comes to us by truck. That gives you some idea of what's behind what we're all seeing at the store."

The trucking industry, which delivers 100 percent of the nation's consumer goods, is experiencing the highest prolonged fuel prices in history. This ultimately will increase the cost of everything that is delivered by truck.

The American Trucking Associations is urging the Bush Administration to act quickly to ensure that strategies are in place to ensure an affordable supply of oil for the nation's 3.5 million truck drivers and American consumers.

"Part of the problem [is] it's not just the food cost itself, it's ... the cost of shipping it," Burnett said in her report. "With crude prices at record highs, gasoline prices at highs, you're paying for that in your food costs as well. You've got to get it from the farm to the store, all of that adds to the surge in prices."

The NBC Nightly News report is linked to ATA's web site at http://www.truckline.com/.

The American Trucking Associations is the largest national trade association for the trucking industry. Through a federation of other trucking groups, industry-related conferences, and its 50 affiliated state trucking associations, ATA represents more than 37,000 members covering every type of motor carrier in the United States.

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Source: American Trucking Associations

CONTACT: Tiffany Wlazlowski of American Trucking Associations,
+1-703-838-1717

Web Site:

http://www.truckline.com/

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