A local trucking company CFO explains what’s coming next for the things you buy every day.
HOUSTON — The Iran war is impacting gas prices here in Houston and across the country.
According to AAA statistics there has been a rise of more than 30 cents a gallon of regular gas in Houston since last week and drivers are taking notice.
“It is extremely high and with the circumstances of affordability already in the city, that’s an issue,” Dreshaun Jones said.
Jones tell KHOU 11 he knows rising gas prices can lead to other prices going up as well.
“The gas prices in grocery stores go hand in hand. I used to work at a grocery store, so I know firsthand as far as for the affordability and how prices can fluctuate,” Jones said.
The reason for that happening is due to food and most things we buy being shipped in 18-wheelers.
You’ll find a whole fleet of 18-wheelers at JH Walker Trucking.
When you enter the property the diesel pump is front and center.
“We’re buying diesel, we’re buying 7,000 gallons at a time,” JH Walker Trucking Chief Financial Officer Houston Walker said.
Walker tells us that fuel goes straight to the 18-wheelers on-site. Many of which transport items we buy every day.
“The cost of every single product, of course, is a trucking component in every single thing we buy,” Walker said.
Those trucks are feeling an impact of the war in Iran at the pump as AAA data shows diesel has risen nearly a dollar a gallon in the last week.
“The first thing on my way to work today was, hey, we gotta order another tank of fuel because these prices could jump up 30, 40 cents,” Walker said.
KHOU 11 energy expert Ed Hirs explains this can be passed on to you.
“The truckers are going to have to raise their fees,” Hirs said. “We’ll see higher, higher costs for our food. We’ll see higher costs for our fuel.” Hirs explained to us the price costs gets passed along and consumers are the only ones who ultimately cannot pass it along.
“For every 10 cents that the price of fuel goes up [for] diesel, we, our our prices go up one percent,” Walker said. “What we do is built into all of our contracts with all of our customers is if the price goes up, we charge more, if the price goes down, we charge less, so it’s just an automatic recalibration for us.”
A recalibration that heavily depends on the conflict in Iran.
Walker noted to us they work to transport items to oil and gas companies. He said if the price for a barrel of oil holds at a higher rate there is the possibility of more jobs in the industry opening up as more oil rigs may start up for some time.
Meantime, some of the items you could see prices increase in are food, clothes and even shipping costs.
As for when you could see an increase it will largely depend on how much more the companies you shop at are being charged.