Charles Skelton: “The Department of Defense spends nearly $1 billion a year moving freight and cargo around the United States of America.…”

“The Department of Defense spends nearly $1 billion a year moving freight and cargo around the United States of America. Much of that moved on truck. Many shippers these days, or brokers, are charging shippers, including the Department of Defense, a fuel surcharge or a fuel-related adjustment, as DOD calls it. It has come to the attention of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee that oftentimes those surcharges that are charged to the shippers are not passed on to the truckers who have got to buy the fuel. Hundreds of trucking firms have gone out of business this year. We are looking at record diesel prices. This amendment simply says that when DOD is charged a fuel-related adjustment, a fuel surcharge, that that must be passed on to the person who has to buy the fuel, generally the trucker, and it has to be posted visibly on the Internet by the broker so that it is known to the trucker and others who purchase the fuel that a fuel surcharge was in place.”