NORTIL AMERICA
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High premiums hit US truckers
• Last year's insurance crunch has taken a heavier toll on American truckers than originally expected. According to figures from the General Accounting Office, approximately 1,300 truckers went out of business in 1985 either because they couldn't get insurance or because they couldn't pay the premium increases. In 1985, carrier insurance premiums rose an average of 72%, the GAO study found. This year, premiums are expected to jump another 26%, The GAO study was based on data gathered from the nation's biggest truck insurers.
The cost of running a private fleet in 1985 in the USA was $1.35 a mile, according to the latest annual survey conducted by A. T. Kearney for the Private Truck Council of America. That's just three cents a mile more than in 1984, and only 10 cents higher than the $1.25 per mile reported in 1981 when the survey begun.
Among the more interesting survey findings are these: The operating cost gap between union and the lowercost non-union fleets is widening. Leased fleets are increasing their cost advantage over company-owned fleets. and more and more private fleets are seeking outside business as for-hire carriers. Traffic Management, July edition.