RV Transporters Squeezed By High Fuel Prices

Above, two transported RVs stopped at the Jamestown, New Mexico Flying J. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Seeing RV transporters at the local Jamestown, New Mexico Flying J is pretty much an everyday occurrence. Interstate 40, that it is on, is a major route for RV transporters, mainly from Elkhart, Indiana to Arizona and California.

We may be seeing fewer of them as fuel prices have surged and squeezed them. Some have decided to sit it out until prices come back down.

This is the subject of a RV Travel article.

They begin with:

Record prices at the pump may be putting a new kink at the very end of the RV industry’s supply chain and could prevent RV buyers from getting their new rigs.

RV transporters are an essential yet mostly unheralded segment of the RV manufacturing industry. In most cases, the folks who move new RVs from factories to dealerships are independent contractors working for larger dispatching firms that contract with manufacturers.

Typically, RV transporters sign up with the dispatching firms, agreeing to haul new RVs from Point A to Point B for a set “per mile” fee that usually rolls in the cost of fuel. When fuel prices jump significantly, transporters can sometimes negotiate for extra fuel surcharges. But the surcharges—if there are any—aren’t keeping up.

 To read more, go here.