(The following report by y Dan Piller appeared on the Fort Worth Star-Telegram website on March 30.)
FORT WORTH, Texas — Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway said that beginning Jan. 1, it will impose fuel surcharges based on mileage rather than as a percentage of the total fuel cost.
The move was described by a BNSF spokesman as “revenue neutral” but will assess extra fuel costs to customers based on mileage per shipment and what was described as “fuel intensity.”
“Some types of shipments, such as coal and agricultural goods, are more fuel-intensive than others,” said Richard Russack, a BNSF spokesman.
BNSF and other railroads have imposed fuel charges of up to 10 percent on customers for the last year as diesel prices have climbed and demand for freight shipments has run about 25 percent ahead of a year earlier. High fuel costs tend to divert long-haul freight shipments from trucks to more fuel-efficient railroads.
BNSF said it was delaying the beginning of the new surcharge system until 2006 so that the railroad and its customers could adjust their computer systems.
Union Pacific Railroad, the other major carrier in the western half of the United States, has also imposed fuel surcharges but had no comment on the BNSF move.
BNSF’s announcement said the new mileage-based surcharges would apply to about 75 percent of BNSF’s traffic, primarily that which stays entirely on BNSF’s 32,000-mile railroad network. A certain percentage of traffic interchanged with other carriers will also be affected, the railroad said.