Overhaul fast trucking to alleviate fuel crisis
Those fresh, delicious, perishable California fruits and vegetables we like so much were brought to the Eastern markets by truckers who developed fast routes using 70 to 80 mph travel to span the country in just over four days, and to haul empty trucks and trailers back for reload, at a fuel cost of up to four times ordinary transportation.
This vast overuse of fast trucking is the cause of our fuel crunch and price crisis. Piggyback rail transport of trailers and trucks uses less than 10 percent of the fuel used by a single truck, so it is perhaps 40 times as fuel efficient.
To break the fuel crisis: provide fast cross-country shipping only for perishable foods and urgent medical items; shift all reload returns of empty trucks and trailers to piggyback rail to save fuel and to provide a better shipping balance; use ocean container shipping for all time-neutral Asian traffic to the East Coast; enhance piggyback operations, with faster schedules, more local terminals and additional time for independent long-distance trucking; and transfer freed-up trucks to provide efficient local deliveries from terminals, keeping drivers close to home, saving wear, highway overload and fuel.
These fuel savings will more than offset shortages, breaking the fuel crisis, and will bring food, heating and transportation costs back to normal.
Thomas Hooker
Youngstown
