Truck stop owners converge on Congress to get lower fuel prices, fair credit card fees

The Trucker News Services

4/25/2008

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – During annual NATSO Day on Capitol Hill April 28 and 29, truck stop and travel plaza operators from across the nation will ask members of congress to take steps to help lower fuel prices.

NATSO, the association representing travel plazas and truck stops, will have more than 50 travel plaza, truck stop and allied industry representatives meeting face-to-face with lawmakers and their staffs in more than 150 congressional offices.

Consumers and retailers alike have been increasingly frustrated with record-breaking prices for gasoline and diesel fuel. Drivers feel the pinch in their pocketbook, but retailers are also being squeezed by prices that rise much more quickly than the credit lines extended by their suppliers, stated a NATSO news release.

There’s no question that the main driver of high fuel prices is the sky rocketing price of crude oil. Normally, crude oil prices are determined by global factors, including supply and demand, OPEC, international tensions and other dynamics, the release continued. “However, there is another dynamic driving crude oil prices— excessive speculation by commodities traders.” Trading on oil contracts takes place predominately on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) with over $1.5 trillion traded daily. However, a growing number of trades (over one million contracts daily) are being made on “over the counter (OTC)” or electronic exchanges such as the International Commodity Exchange (ICE), NATSO stated.

OTC exchanges are not subjected to the same recordkeeping requirements by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) as physical exchanges (such as NYMEX). “Because of this lack of oversight, the opportunity for market manipulation (leading to further price volatility) is high,” the release said, adding that “NATSO members will ask Congress to approve adequate funding for CFTC oversight.

“Contract trading volume has sky-rocketed in recent years. Increased funding will be needed to ensure that the commission can hire more staff, update its equipment and begin to more adequately oversee the diverse and rapidly growing commodity exchanges.”

As the price of fuel and other consumer goods continues to rise, travel plazas across the country are feeling the pressure from percentage-based interchange fees they must pay when a customer uses a credit card during a transaction. According to NATSO, Americans are paying the highest interchange fees in the world, an average of 2 percent, compared with less than 1 percent in most other industrialized countries.

For example, with the price of gas at more than $3 a gallon, credit card companies and their banks are collecting as much as 8 cents a gallon in interchange fees while retailers typically make 1 to 2 cents per gallon. NATSO said its members “will be asking congress to restore fairness to the credit card fee negotiating process by supporting and co-sponsoring H.R. 5546, The Credit Card Fair Fee Act, or the related Senate bill when it is introduced.

“The legislation provides a transparent, open market solution to the ongoing problem of interchange fees, and simply provides merchants with the proper leverage to negotiate fair fees that accurately reflect the real cost of a credit card transaction.”