Trucking: pricing companys and what brokers give, eia doe, fedexfreight

Question
Hi, my question is this I have been told about a book that gives you an idea of what is a fuel surcharge payment and what to charge a company. If their is a book where can I get one. I am starting my own company and the prices that brokers are giving me they say fuel surcharge included. If that was the case I was better off working for the other company and eliminating some of the debts. Also what is the realistic charge for a company to pay

Answer
Aisda, I don't know of the book you are referring to.
Fuel surcharges are commonly accepted and often negotiated.  The parrty with the power usually sets the surcharge terms and the other party either takes it or leaves it.  Major shippers typically dictate the terms and smaller shippers usually take what the trucker charges as standard.  There are two predominant ways to calculate fuel surcharges, (FSC), either as a percentage of the line haul rate or in cents per mile.  Typically the long haul TL business uses the cents per mile method while short haul local TL and virtually all LTL carriers use the percentage method.  The LTL carriers for the most part publish their FSC tables on their web sites, for example:
http://www.fedexfreight.fedex.com/fxfrulestariff.jsp?as_rules=fuel_surcharge.htm...
TL carriers typically use a mileage based surcharge for example:
http://www.fwccinc.com/surcharge.html
Most FSC programs utilize the DOE Averages published each week to calculate the appropriate charges:
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/wohdp/diesel.asp

Brokers in the industry typically deal with multiple customers each dictating their own program and multiple carriers for capacity.  As a result it is common for them to quote prices as "all in" or "flat rates" that include the fSC component.  There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach for spot market rates as long as you know up front and are satisfied that the total price covers the total cost.  The FSC schemes are appropriate for long term contract rates for repetitive moves where the fuel cost may change over the period of the contract.

Hope this helps.
Jim.