Gas Prices

[dschwandt]

A situation in Chicago!!!????

Imagine THAT!!!

Chicago IS a situation!!!

Dave S.

 

[lhinds]

I was wandering how the gas prices are in the Midwest. I need to travel to Iowa soon. Here 87 non ethanol is 3.27 and 93 non ethanol is 3.59.

 

[jbaker]

$3.45 in rockford, il

 

[dfrisk]

DAVE S. - Ha-Ha. Back 30 yrs ago when I was driving semi from the Quad-Cities to Chicago every day I always said ILL's biggest problem was Chicago... And Chicago's Biggest Problem was the fact Mother O'Leary's COW died.

I was surprised Friday, filled my pickup with fuel. It had been $4.059 for months, pulled up to the pump and it was $3.899, guess it dropped with the last round of gas price reductions.

 

[dschwandt]

Dennis, We probably met any number of times then and didn't know it. We used to load a lot out of Alcoa in Bettendorf also did a lot of grain to Clinton, Hennipin, and chicago and seel back out that is until TMC started cuttin' rates!!

Dave S.

 

[ralbert]

3.29 in the Tampa area

 

[dfrisk]

DAVE S. - I wouldn't be at all surprised we did cross paths frequently. We used to pull out of Ralston in Clinton a lot. We had 2-3 city drivers spotting trailers at Ralston in Davenport every day. I even did that a couple days when I first started driving for that co.

The runs I normally made were from Davenport to Westville, Indiana to Eagle Food's warehouse via I-80, then pull a load of groceries for a suburban Chicago Eagles store out of Westville, then make a pickup in Chicago at some food warehouse or mfg. to run back to Eagles in Milan. And then there were variations where my back haul to the Q-C's was something like a load of engines from IH Melrose Pk to Farmall. And if business was slow I'd just get a piggy-back rail trailer load of dog food to a rail yard in Chicago and pull an empty trailer home. Paid me a WHOLE $35 for a day's work. The Westville runs paid me $100.

My Dad & one Cousin were both driving back then too. I'd see my Cousin frequently (once a week?) in his big tu-tone green KW tilt-cab hauling livestock. But then he never slept! And Dad was driving a fuel transport for FS out of Albany, IL. I'd mostly see him on the state highways out in the middle of nowhere. About once every month or two. Our schedules didn't mesh real well. He worked from 3 AM till 3 PM, got paid by the hour. I tried to work from roughly 7 AM till whenever I got home, then took 7-8 hrs off and left again. I got paid 22% of whatever the co. said they got paid for the haul based on $0.80 to $1.00/loaded mile. If I loaded the load the numbers were pretty close, but most times a city driver making $8.00/hr loaded our loads and that knocked $50 or more off the gross revenue for that load which cost me big time.

After a year or so I got tired of beating back and forth on I-80 and ILL 5, now I-88, and by then our co. had a small office & lot in Kansas City, MO. So I'd run there every week or so. We'd pick-up or deliver to Monsanto in Muscatine a lot. I picked up a piggy-back load of freezers & fridges at Amana one afternoon and took it to Chicago. Also picked up a 20 ft container with three skids of special seed corn from Pioneer I think it was up by Ames, Iowa once. And we delivered to Hy-Vee Foods in Chariton, Ia a lot too. We'd also deliver to Jewel Foods in Chicago for Ralston, Aldi Foods, Target Stores warehouse and one or two other grocery warehouses that escape me right now.

Place I hated picking up at in Chicago was Brachs Candy on Cicero IIRC, between W. North Ave & I-290. But there was a 13 ft bridge between I-290 and Brachs, so we had to run Mannhiem to W. North Ave east to Cicero, then south. It could take anywhere from an hour to EIGHT hours to get loaded there. One time I waited over six hours to get into the dock, next time there they had me back into the dock as soon as I got there, put 20 skids with over 400 different types of candy on my trailer and let me go in an hour. LOTS of stop & go city driving in some not too friendly neighborhoods getting in & out of there, especially after dark.

Best pick-up I had was a load of tires for BF Goodrich in Neosho, Missouri out of a storage CAVE. About 2 hrs south of Kansas City. I kinda abused my log book getting home to Davenport that night, but cooled it off delivering the tires to JD Dubuque and Case in Burlington the next day.

ANYHOW.. Back on topic, gas is between $3.35 & $3.39 for regular around here.

 

[dschwandt]

Dennis.,,,,
I hear all that!!!
I broke in on egg runs to chicago in '66-'67 with a grocery backhaul out of Certified Grocers off Central Ave stickney Twp. Had stores in Monticello, Anamosa and Cedar rapids, Mom & Pop operations, twice a week. 6 stops may times up and sown Halstead, So Water Mkt, Fulton Mkt as well as places in th outlying suburbs. Peddle the damned eggs and than spend 1/2 the nite loading the reload at 3 docks, Gro, Frozen and Produce having to wait at each one to get a hole, run like hell, grab an hour or 2 shut eye at Big Rock, Jct26/64 (PETTICOAT JCT) or Savannah and then struggle on into IA.

Best run was straght loads to RosebudFarms down on 139'th street. I delivered there the night MLK got killed. Kind of scary, got on I-5 at Aurora, or was it IL-59, and all the way down town hardly any traffic other than some truck loads of NG troops. No street lites, smoke and trash blowing all over the place. RBF had a fenced in lot, I was GLAD OF THAT!!..The night guard said NOT to get out of tye ftruck and they would wake me in the morning as usual. They mustof had 3 or 4 BIG dogs inside the fence!!

Were you around there at all during the big blizzard '67??

I can relate to the candy boxes as well, did a lot of frozen Stouffers out of Cleveland too!

Dave S AKA "GearJammer" back then KDT4948

 

[klindstedt]

Dennis - when you were at the Eagle warehouse in Westville, you were near my neck of the woods. I live about 10 miles north and west of that site.

On topic - gas is $3.63 today in Chesterton, IN

 

[jchamberlin]

Price jumped $0.20 to $3.499 (from $3.299) at my favorite filling station in Jason, North Carolina; 6 miles away in Snow Hill it rose to $3.559 (from $3.499).

 

[jbaker]

$3.75 to $3.85 in rockford, il

 

[dtanner]

$1.39 a liter here !

 

[jbaker]

WOW so Don is paying about 5.20 a gallon

 

[lhinds]

3.26 Here in Tennessee.

 

[lhinds]

Went to 3.54 yesterday A M.

 

[jchamberlin]

Up to $3.639 in Greenville, NC

 

[kide]

DOWN to $3.84 in Central Michigan....

 

[sgalante]

Upstate NY (Rochester area) went from 3.58 -> 3.63 -> 3.68 -> 3.73 -> 3.78 -> 3.79+ all within a week. In fact the 3.73 -> 3.78 and 3.78 -> 3.79 both happened the same day. Many around me are up to 3.83 already. Although I thought it was illegal to do so, a few stations are giving about a 5 cent discount for cash.

 

[lhinds]

Gas here in Jamestown area is 3.15 for 87 blend. I will be driving to Iowa soon and checking gas prices.

 

[dtanner]

I think you guys have a small gallon . we are paying $1.38 liter here for reg gas .