Plan is expected to seek about a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption
Future tractor-trailers, school buses, delivery vans, garbage trucks and heavy-duty pickup trucks must do better at the pump under first-ever fuel efficiency rules coming from the Obama administration.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department are moving ahead with a proposal for medium- and heavy-duty trucks, beginning with those sold in the 2014 model year and into the 2018 model year. Read more here.
(International Freighting Weekly – Katerina Kerrr)
Some hauliers claim fuel hike singles them out over other modes, but others claim extra revenue will ease traffic bottlenecks
Truckers in the US are facing higher diesel taxes. A Bill that would increase the tax on diesel used by hauliers by 12 cents to 36.4 cents per gallon has been criticised by the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association (OOIDA), which claims saying it penalises truckers and fails to look at other modes such as rail.
However, the American Trucking Association (ATA) has pledged its support for the Bill, which it said would “address critical freight transportation needs, focusing resources on the nation’s most important goods movement corridors”. Read more here.
The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries cut crude-oil output by nearly 1.3 million barrels a day in January in an attempt to tame the supply glut that is anchoring prices near $40 a barrel.
But as the cartel tightened the taps, crude-oil inventories in the U.S. were increasing by 700,000 to 900,000 barrels a day. That growth rate, the most seen in the month of January in 85 years and the highest in any month since at least October 2002, is a setback to OPEC’s efforts.
Crude oil is piling up as the global economic crisis has cut consumer demand for petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel. The oversupply that is driving down near-term prices makes it profitable for refiners to amass crude-oil inventories.
Rising inventories are a further blow to OPEC, which is reeling from the fall in global oil demand and prices. Crude-oil futures are down 72% from their record above $145 a barrel hit in July. Each barrel of oil that goes into storage in consumer countries weakens the cartel’s hold on the market and potentially prolongs the price skid.
OPEC pledged to cut output by 4.2 million barrels a day in September. Since then, the group has cut production by a total 3.135 million barrels a day, indicating a compliance rate of 75%, a survey by Dow Jones Newswires estimates.
Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter and OPEC member, cut output below its agreed level of 8.05 million barrels a day in January. Saudi output of 7.9 million barrels a day was the lowest since October 2002. Now, analysts said, the plunge, alongside oil’s inability to recover, will require deeper cuts by Saudi Arabia and OPEC to prop up the market. Read more here.
Facing its biggest test in a decade, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries is planning to make a major cut in oil output at a meeting in Oran, Algeria, tomorrow in an effort to stop the slide in oil prices, which have dropped by two-thirds since July.
Confronted by sputtering world oil demand, the cartel is expected to make production cuts of about 2 million barrels a day to reduce the size of world inventories and to boost prices back up to the $75-a-barrel level that Saudi King Abdullah has called reasonable. It will be the group's fourth meeting in four months as it tries to adjust to the weakening world economy.
“They are going to cut and they are going to cut big,” said Roger Diwan, a partner at PFC Energy, a Washington consulting firm. Even after substantial OPEC output cuts earlier in the fall, world oil inventories “are building much faster than people thought,” Diwan added. Oil stocks are big enough to cover 57 days of supplies, up from the five-year average of 52 days.
Reaching the $75-a-barrel price target could be a tough task, however. U.S. oil demand has been weaker than any time since the economic slowdown that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Even though retail gasoline prices have plunged to a nationwide average of $1.66 a gallon for regular, cash-strapped motorists continue to use less fuel than they did a year ago. The Energy Information Administration is forecasting a 3.4% drop in motor fuel use for 2008, and a bigger drop in oil-based motor fuel after taking rising ethanol use into account. Click here for the complete article.
With Europe, Asia and Japan assumed to be in a synchronized recession for the first time in 60 years, the forecasts for demand of crude oil are literally changing by the minute. These revisions though are entirely focussed on the next year and not the next decade. The myopic view of traders and speculators being what it is, the entire global energy market is being deeply discounted. Wholesale gasoline prices in New York have collapsed by 60% from early September’s record setting prices. Crude oil is less than half of what it was in July and energy stocks as a group have roughly taken the same kind of dramatic haircut.
Given the precipitous drop in prices and the ongoing challenges facing corporate borrowers, we can’t help but wonder how many of the expansion and exploration projects currently in the works will soon be shelved as oil companies adopt a more cautious approach to planned expenditures. These days the markets are swiftly punishing large corporations that follow-thru with takeovers or expensive projects on the books (witness the flogging of Teck Cominco’s shares recently). The expected return on any big oil company’s infrastructure investment looks remarkably different with $60/barrel oil rather than $100/barrel oil. Using Steven Forbes $35/barrel estimate, most infrastructure investments would seem guaranteed money-losers.
Although you wouldn’t know it by looking at this week’s market prices for crude oil, the global energy supply crunch has not gone away. This is an important factor for any investor willing to look beyond the next 12 months. The International Energy Agency was doing its best to deliver a wake-up call during this week’s World Energy Outlook from London, but it doesn’t seem to be finding much luck with getting policy makers to listen (or care).
Zoom Airlines said Thursday that it has halted flights and grounded its planes, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded and tempers flaring at airports.
“We deeply regret the fact that we have been forced to cease all Zoom operations. It is a tragic day for our passengers and more than 600 staff,” Zoom co-founders Hugh and John Boyle said in a statement. “We are desperately sorry for the inconvenience that this will cause passengers and those who have booked flights.”
The Ottawa-based carrier took down its website Thursday afternoon, preventing consumers from making online bookings. Earlier in the day, a Zoom sales agent said bookings were still being accepted in the morning, despite dozens of travellers being stranded on various flights.
“We have done everything we can to support the airline and left no stone unturned to secure a refinancing package that would have kept our aircraft flying. Even as late as yesterday we had secured a new investment package but the actions of creditors meant we could not continue flying,” the Boyle Brothers said. Read the complete article. Announcement from Zoom Air here.
While Canadians complain about the soaring price of gasoline at the pumps, an oil industry spokesman says people in this country actually have it pretty good.
Peter Boag, testifying before a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, told MPs that fuel prices are lower in Canada than they are in every other Western country, except the United States.
And the fact that Canadian gas prices jump up and down from day to day is actually a good sign, he said.
“We do understand Canadians' frustration with fuel price volatility in particular, but at the same time in our view that's the best evidence of a well-functioning, competitive market,” said Boag, president of the Canadian Petroleum Product Institute.
His association represents Canadian fuel companies like Petro-Canada, Shell, Ultramar, Chevron, Husky and Imperial Oil.
“In our view, Canadians are well-served by a competitive marketplace and today they still pay the second-lowest price for fuel in the Western world,” he added.
He was one of three petroleum industry experts testifying before the Subcommittee on Oil and Gas and Other Energy Prices. The committee is investigating the reasons behind the high prices of fuel in the country.
More recent easing of prices likely to bring down surcharges beginning in October; shipping lines hold firm on floating bunker contract terms.
Container lines in the Transpacific Stabilization Agreement (TSA) have confirmed that their floating bunker fuel surcharge, adjusted monthly according to a formula that tracks world fuel prices at key loading locations, will spike to a record level effective September 1. The higher surcharge reflects record fuel prices that topped $767 per ton in mid-July, up from $500 at the beginning of 2008 and $296 at the beginning of 2007.
Responding to questions that have been raised as to why the bunker charge is increasing at a time when fuel prices have been falling, N.Y.K. Line vice president and TSA revenue policy committee member Bill Payne emphasized that each month’s surcharge reflects average fuel prices during a reporting period 30-60 days earlier. This is done to comply with U.S. law requiring a minimum 30 days’ advance notice to the market in the event a particular rate or surcharge is to be raised. “Carriers pay the higher fuel costs out of pocket as those costs rise, cushioning the impact on shippers, and then must pass them through after the fact,” Payne said. “The good news with a floating formula is that, as prices fall, customers will start to see savings 30 to 60 days out.”
The TSA surcharge is posted by the carrier group as a guideline for the market, but service contracts with customers – including bunker surcharge terms – are addressed individually by the lines. APL senior vice president Bob Sappio, also an RPC committee member, noted that while carriers and shippers have made significant progress in agreeing on a floating fuel surcharge, much more work remains. “If people think the high price of fuel is temporary they are mistaken”, Sappio said. “The transpacific trade is simply not sustainable as it is presently constituted; carriers must recover a greater percentage of actual dollars spent on fuel.”
High gasoline prices were supposed to force Canadians to change their travel habits, and statistics made public this week suggest we are spending less on fuel.
But at U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the impression is that while a road trip to the United States might cost Canadians more than last year, it's a price we're prepared to pay.
"There hasn't been any significant increase or decrease in the traffic that's been coming across the border," U.S. Customs spokesperson Ted Woo said. "Weekend traffic is busier and Mondays and Tuesdays it might lighten up.
"But whether it's a small (crossing) like Derby Line (in Vermont) or elsewhere, there's been no real change."
Woo's comments follow a report by Statistics Canada this week that shows even though the price of gasoline increased by 8.8 per cent from April to May, revenues from sales at the pump rose by only 2.4 per cent. That gap represents a nearly six-per-cent drop in the amount of fuel sold, some analysts have calculated.
That apparent frugality with fuel, however, might be manifested in the choices Canadians make about how to get to work, rather than where they vacation. Read the complete article.
Under the backdrop of a deteriorating economic picture, President Bush said Tuesday he is taking action to help people with falling home values and high gas prices.
Bush highlighted plans to stabilize the mortgage lenders Fannie Mae (FNM, Fortune 500) and Freddie Mac (FRE, Fortune 500) and lift the ban on offshore oil drilling as two steps his administration is taking to address some of the nation's economic ills.
On the gas price front, Bush reiterated his call for more drilling off the East and West Coasts and in Alaska.
“The only thing standing between these vast resources and the American people is action from Congress,” he said. “The sooner Congress lifts the ban, the sooner we can get these resources from the ocean floor to the refineries to the gas pump.”
There were two bans restricting drilling off most of the U.S. coast - one from the President and one from Congress.
On Monday Bush lifted the executive ban, putting pressure on the Democratic-controlled Congress to do the same.
So far, the Democrats have resisted calls for more drilling, arguing the amount of oil it would bring to market would have little effect on prices, and the nation's efforts would be better spent developing alternatives to oil and focusing on conservation. Complete article here, and more on lifting of the offshore drilling ban here.
Soaring oil prices have started to deliver more pain than gain for the Canadian economy, which has profited from the country’s energy exports, says a new report.
While it is true that oil exports have, in the words of Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney, made “Canada wealthier as a nation,” people are paying a price in terms of higher gasoline, electricity and heating charges, says Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist with the Bank of Montreal.
Porter said fuel prices have risen so much that energy is now consuming a record seven per cent of Canadian household spending and “looks poised to continue heading higher.”
But the big loser is Canadian industry, which is being hammered both from higher production costs and from the slowdown in the world and U.S. economies struggling to cope with the high fuel costs.
The auto sector has been particularly impacted, slicing U.S. auto sales to the lowest level since the recession of the early 1990s.
Since Canada produces twice as many vehicles per capita than the U.S. and most head south, lower demand in America disproportionately hurts the Canadian sector, says Porter. He estimated Canada has lost 30,000 auto jobs from its peak, most in Ontario.
“The received wisdom in recent years is that the Canadian economy benefits on net from higher oil prices, given the country’s status as a significant and growing net energy exporter,” he writes in a three-page report.
“There is a strong case to be made that the surge in oil prices crossed the tipping point this spring from providing some economic ballast for the domestic economy to acting as a heavy anchor.”
According to the analysis, the “tipping point” came when world oil prices hit the US$120-130 range and kept heading higher, destroying the illusion that the soaring prices were a temporary phenomenon.
Canadians are more likely than Americans to think NAFTA has been bad for their country, while the economy and the soaring cost of fuel have become top issues on both sides of the border, according to a new poll.
The bi-national survey was conducted by The Strategic Counsel for CTV and The Globe and Mail, and involved interviews with 1,000 people in Canada and 1,000 in the U.S.
Among Canadians, 44 per cent thought the North American Free Trade Agreement was bad for Canada, while 43 per cent thought the opposite. The results suggest the debate over NAFTA is far from over, 14 years after the deal came into effect.
“I think it’s a sleeper issue,” Peter Donolo, a partner in The Strategic Counsel, told CTV.ca. “I think that neither one of the two major parties wants to exploit it, or is in a position to exploit it. The question is whether it could ignite the moribund political standing of the NDP.”
NAFTA became a central issue in the U.S. Democratic nomination race, with both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton suggesting they would be willing to renegotiate the trade deal.
However, Americans seemed more favourable to NAFTA, with 46 per cent saying it was good for the United States and 36 per cent saying it was bad.
On both sides of the border, the economy was a major concern.
Among Canadians, unemployment issues and the economy was tied with gas prices as the number one issue, at 18 per cent. The environment was just behind at 16 per cent.
Here are the top issues with a percentage-point change from a Jan. 10-13 poll in brackets:
• Economic issues: 18 per cent (+6) • Gas prices: 18 per cent (+15) • Environmental issues: 16 per cent (-6) • Health care: 11 per cent (-1) • Social/Moral issues: 9 per cent (N/A) • Foreign policy issues: 6 per cent (-2)
Less than a year ago, gas prices had barely registered at 3 per cent, while the environment had been the top issue at 22 per cent.
“The economy has been growing as an issue of concern for Canadians,” said Donolo. We’ve seen gas prices throughout the summer as a big issue, and we’ve seen a number of car plant closings.” Read more.
(Al Jazeera-English) The ups and ups of the price of oil — are the media getting it right or pumping up a crisis?
The price of oil is at an all time high. Consumers are feeling the pinch, while producers are seeing profits go through the roof. Just why 2008 has seen the surge in prices it has (almost reaching the $140-per-barrel mark) is a mystery even the media's best talking heads cannot agree on. Peak oil, speculation, supply and demand, political instability, China and India's booming growth, all these reasons and more are seized upon by the pundits trying to bring clarity to the story. Does the media’s coverage ignite our understanding or does it throw fuel on the fire, increasing the speculation that may be raising prices?
Both Barack Obama and John McCain are engaging in xenophobia with their complaints about America’s use of foreign oil. Check it out:
Obama says on his Web site that “energy security requires stemming the flow of money to oil-rich regimes that are hostile to America and its allies....” Obama fails to give any examples, however.
McCain says on his site that the next president needs to make “the hard choices that will break our nation’s strategic dependence on foreign sources of energy...”
Both presidential candidates ignore some facts with their statements.
The largest supplier of petroleum to America is ... Canada, which meets about 25% of our monthly needs. Mexico is the third biggest with around 13%. In other words, 38% of the U.S.’s monthly imports come from our two most important North American allies.
Sandwiched at second place (supplying 15% of our petroleum) is Saudi Arabia, which certainly sits in a long-unstable region. But Saudi Arabia is hardly “hostile” to America, as Obama implies. In fact, it’s been one of the steadiest suppliers America has had in the past two decades.
Indeed, the only nations that supply a rather significant amount of petroleum and are openly hostile to America are Venezuela and Nigeria, both at about 12%. So where’s Iran? The United States buys little or no oil from that nation, which supplies China and other countries instead. Others in the top 15 suppliers include Russia, the Virgin Islands, Brazil, Kuwait and the United Kingdom.
Petroleum prices increased substantially for a third consecutive month in May, driving up the indexes for manufactured goods and raw materials prices. However, if energy products were excluded, the price movement for both those indexes would have been negative.
From April to May, prices charged by manufacturers, as measured by the Industrial Product Price Index (IPPI), rose 0.6%, down from the 1.6% increase in April. May’s increase was almost entirely attributable to petroleum and coal products, which continued their upward climb with an increase of 8.2%, similar to the rate recorded in the previous two months.
Prices for other IPPI products, with the exception of energy, declined 0.5%, their first decrease after five straight monthly increases. Among non-energy products, 13 major groups out of a total of 20 posted declines, led by primary metal products as well as motor vehicles and other transport equipment. Summary statistics and a link to the data file can be found here.
(Video: AP/Story: Export Development Canada – Peter G. Hall)
One of the marvels of recent economic developments is the surge in commodity prices. It wasn’t anticipated, but it has persisted, and the debate about its causes rages on. Two key views have emerged: on one side, those who feel it’s mostly about supply and demand fundamentals, and on the other, those who see a heavy speculative element. Does the latter side have a point?
Price movements have been dramatic, and have involved a broad range of goods. Since the summer of 2007, oil prices have more than doubled to $130 a barrel. Base metals have been on a tear since 2005, with copper, nickel, lead, zinc, aluminum and steel now fetching several times their original prices. Food has more recently joined the fray, with wheat, coarse grains and rice prices, up 125% since early 2007, spurring price increases across the agri-food sector.
Is speculation a factor? Human behaviour suggests so. Sudden price spikes are usually spurred by shortages, or at least the perception of shortages. Consider food. A mere rumour that local supplies are running low is enough to trigger a rush on supplies. To the merchant, this looks like a surge in demand, so up go prices as the order book fattens. Does the demand surge reflect fundamentals? Far from it. Worry that the current food distribution system will fail them leads private citizens to buy, not just for current needs, but to build their own personal food inventories.
The mechanism is similar for producers. Rather than let short supplies shut down their production lines, savvy businesses will likewise build up stocks of what they need for the future. As this catches on across the world economy, demand swamps available supplies, putting pressure on the global production system and ultimately, prices. Why? Because global production maintains enough supply to meet day-to-day needs, but is not geared for sudden private inventory building.
The process doesn’t stop here, though. As with any sustained price rise, it is better for producers to buy additional supplies early, and sell at the latest possible point in time, either marking prices up to reflect rising input costs, undercutting competitors who didn’t pre-buy earlier at lower prices, or a combination of the two. Either way, there is a strong incentive to purchase a lot more than current needs dictate, adding further to the perception of a general supply shortage.
And then there are other market players. These have little or no direct connection to the commodity in question, but see large price increases, and want a piece of the action. They have significant clout, given the sizable liquidity generated by robust global growth in the past four years. And data suggest that they are quite active in current commodity transactions. Their incentive is strong. In the past year, major global stock market indexes have fallen on average by 15%. In the same timeframe, commodities in US dollar terms have jumped by almost 50%. What is more, the incentive has been magnified by crisis in other parts of the economy. This activity is enhancing the perception of shortages, but has little relation to demand and supply fundamentals.
The bottom line? Speculative bubbles are almost impossible to fully identify before they burst, but oddly enough, are always a no-brainer in hindsight. Knowing that the incentives to over-invest in commodities are currently very strong suggests that a near term price correction could well occur.
The same week that gas reached $4 a gallon earlier this month, diesel hit $4.71 a gallon. What does this mean for commercial truckers? It means that it now costs about $1,200 to fill up a tank of gas. At least 935 trucking companies went out of business due to rising fuel prices in the first quarter of 2008 alone, and these numbers have been climbing every quarter for the last five quarters.
Going green has become a matter of necessity for companies whose business involves driving. Consumer shipping businesses like UPS and FedEx may not be the greenest of the green—Climate Counts gives them scores of 39 and 28 out of 100 respectively—but they’ve recently begun deploying innovative strategies that will certainly begin reducing their carbon dioxide emissions and can serve as a model for other commercial shippers trying to stay afloat by using less gas.
Eliminating Left Turns: Trucks can waste a lot of gas idling while waiting for a left turn. At the beginning of 2007, UPS therefore eliminated all left turns from delivery routes, and has so far reduced over 30 million miles from their routes. This has saved 3 million gallons of gas and 32,000 metric tons of CO2—the equivalent of removing 5,300 passenger cars from the road for a year.
Compressed Natural Gas Delivery Trucks: UPS has deployed over 800 delivery trucks across the United States that run on compressed natural gas. While the trucks look just like the diesel-guzzlers in UPS’ fleet, they release 20 percent fewer emissions and improve fuel economy by 10 percent. Read the complete article.
A new forecast calls for gasoline prices to hit $7 (U.S.) a gallon in the next two years and oil to soar to $200 a barrel by 2010.
The report by CIBC World Markets also predicts there will be 10 million fewer cars on the road in the United States by 2012.
“Over the next four years, we are likely to witness the greatest mass exodus of vehicles off America's highways in history,” Jeffrey Rubin, the lead author, wrote in Thursday's report.
Economist Benjamin Tal, who co-authored the report with Mr. Rubin, said Canadians can expect to pay about $1.85 to $2.00 per litre of gas at the pumps by 2010.
Mr. Tal also expects the numbers of Canadian vehicles on the road to drop by 700,000 by 2012 – much less than the 10 million predicted in the U.S.
“We don't have the same story in the sense that most low income Canadians have better access to public transportation,” he said, referring to the report's U.S. calculations that estimates that about half the cars coming off the road will be from Americans who make less than $25,000.
In Canada, the decrease will be mainly come from middle-class families that own two or three cars, Mr. Tal said.
By 2012, the report predicts, the average miles driven in the United States will decrease by 15 per cent, and sports utility vehicles, which accounted for almost 60 per cent of U.S. market share in 2006, will drop to less than half that level. Overall vehicle sales will drop from 14 million to 11 million by 2012 – the lowest level since the early 1980s. Read the complete article.
David Bradley, CEO of the Canadian Trucking Alliance (CTA), warned shippers at the Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Logistics Association that they will have to continue paying sufficient surcharges in light of rising fuel costs.
“However you cut it, whatever fuel surcharge formula you use, carriers need to generate enough revenue to survive,” he explained. “The combination of the base rate, fuel surcharge, accessorial and other charges must add up to an amount that provides for an adequate return on investment. Two plus two must equal four at the end of the day.”
Bradley pointed out that 40-50% of carrier revenues currently result from fuel surcharges. While he admitted that’s “bizarre” he also said “putting that genie back in the bottle is extremely difficult.”
He went on to say: “Changing fuel surcharges in isolation of rates is not tenable for carriers. You want a new formula, fine. But you have to look at all the fuel used to pick-up and deliver your load. You want lower fuel surcharges, fine. But then rates have to go up. Whatever formula you come up with, carriers want you to stick to it.”
Finally, Bradley urged shippers to take a long-term view and to secure capacity now.
“Many markets are soft right now, there is excess capacity and changing balance. But the capacity situation will resolve itself and when it does things could tighten quickly.”
Canadian airlines still in “reasonably good shape” however
At current oil prices, several U.S. airlines will default on their obligations to creditors, beginning at the end of 2008 and early 2009, according to a study issued today (June 13) by AirlineForecasts LLC and the Business Travel Coalition (BTC).
According to that report, $130/barrel oil prices would increase yearly airline costs by $30bn, while carriers would be able to generate only $4bn in fare increases and incremental fees. “The implication of this alarming trend is that several large and small airlines will ultimately end up in bankruptcy – and of those, some will be forced to liquidate,” it suggested.
“If oil prices stay anywhere near $130/barrel, all major legacy airlines will be in default on various debt covenants by the end of 2008 or early 2009. U.S. commercial aviation is in full blown crisis and heading toward a catastrophe.
“Airlines are the primary source of inter-city transportation, critical to national and local economic development, the flow of human capital, movement of just-in-time parts for manufacturing, perishable food and other goods critical to our economy. With airlines gravely threatened, so is our economic well-being.”
Specific findings of the AirlineForecasts/BTC study include:
• The top 10 U.S. airlines will spend almost $25bn in higher fuel costs this year over last year when jet fuel averaged $2.11 per gallon. Fuel hedge benefits could offset $5 to $6bn of the increased fuel costs.
• Earnings for the group (of U.S. airlines), when one-time reorganisation charges are removed, were less than $4bn in 2007, the only year of profitability this decade. “The group could lose as much as $9bn over the next 12 months if the current range of oil prices holds.”
• Airlines have the ability to raise some cash, and moreover, suppliers such as aircraft manufacturers, leasing companies and travel management companies will have an incentive to support large airlines that provide a stream of value. “Nevertheless, without a swift reduction in the price of fuel, the industry is headed toward a massive failure that will result in more bankruptcies, including liquidations.”
While there is little doubt the industry is hurting both in Canada and the U.S., Joe D’Cruz, a management professor at the University of Toronto, said Canadian airlines are in “reasonably good shape.”
“In Canada, the industry is insulated by a couple of things,” D’Cruz told CTV.ca, noting that the overall Canadian economy is in better shape than its American counterpart.
“We (also) don’t have the intense (airline) competition. There is competition, but the airlines refrain from destructive competition. (And they) seem to pass on increases in high oil prices to travelers. They are hurting, but they are not in a disastrous shape.” Read more here.
