DE PERE, Wis. (WFRV) – As fuel prices continue to spike as the war continues in the Middle East, local companies and municipalities are taking steps to manage their fuel usage.
One of those companies is Paper Transport in De Pere.
“Trying to limit the truck running when it’s not actually moving and then speed is the biggest piece,” Chief Corporate Development Officer at Paper Transport Ben Schill said. “If you have your drivers driving in a safety-conscious way, not pounding on the gas or pounding on the brakes, and going at a slower speed, you’re going to consume a lot less diesel.”
For the past 15 years, Schill said they’ve tried to manage fuel costs by adding trucks to their fleet that run on natural gas. Although these trucks are more expensive to get, the natural gas fuel they need to run is cheaper than regular diesel. He said natural gas prices don’t fluctuate as much as diesel prices either.
“The commodity cost is much smaller (with natural gas), so if that commodity cost swings up and down like in diesel, the commodity cost is primarily oil, that cost swings up and down,” Schill explained. “When it’s a much smaller portion of that final cost, like with the natural gas, those swings of the commodity don’t produce violent swings on the pump price that you’re paying.”
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Schill said just over 10 percent of their 750-truck fleet uses natural gas, and the plan is to add additional natural gas-powered trucks in the future. The natural gas-powered trucks are easier on the environment, and Paper Transport has won several awards over the years for sustainability.
According to Triple A, the average price of regular gas in Wisconsin has risen by nearly a dollar in the last month. Diesel prices have soared even more quickly, rising $1.12 since last month.
Municipal officials said they are also examining their fuel use with the high prices right now. Outagamie County Executive Tom Nelson provided some insight to Local 5 News about how they budget for fuel each year when it’s impossible to know exactly where prices will land.
“We look at these purchases and make estimates conservatively, we look at historical averages, and purchase in bulk,” Nelson said. “I think that’s a strategy that other governments do as well as businesses.”
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He told Local 5 News that the amount the county spends on fuel this year, with these high prices, could impact what future county budgets will look like.
“With 30 different departments, providing 30 different services around the county, there’s going to be different levels of dependency and use on fuel,” he said.
About 20 percent of the world’s oil passes through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has blocked throughout its war with the United States and Israel.
