Valley trucking companies feeling impact of high diesel prices

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- In the US, the demand for diesel is surging, supplies are low and local trucking companies say they're taking a huge hit from the high prices.

Diesel is the main fuel used to power trucks, trains and ships that transport your food and home goods across the country.

Here in the Valley, Dale Mendoza has kept truckers on the roads for more than 52 years with his company Quali-T-Ruck Service.

He says it used to cost them $300 to fill up one of their trucks -- now, it costs $600-$700.

"There is a high demand of diesel and a high demand of drivers," he said. "We are really short on drivers and short on supply."

The Energy Information Administration says the US only has 25 days of distillate supply, which includes jet fuel and heating oil, along with diesel.

Mendoza says he's never seen a situation this severe in his decades of doing business.

"The prices have just gone completely out of control," he said. "There's no way that we can comply to get enough money for what we do at the price that we have to pay for fuel."

Up the road is the trucking school - Advanced Career Institute.

Everett Yocket is the Director of Operations and says they've had to increase the amount of time students train in the trucks due to federal and state regulations, which means they're burning more fuel for the same number of students.

"It squeezes a very small margin," he said. "Margins have never been huge to begin with, but it just squeezes it a little more. All we can do is get through this year, hope for the next year and maybe fuel prices will come down."