FLORENCE, Ky. — Gas higher than $5.00 a gallon is enough to put a hurt on the wallet of any average person filling up at the pump.

Driving hundreds of miles a day and burning through hundreds of gallons of gas with prices the way they are is a different story entirely. One truck driver in Northern Kentucky explained how he’s getting through the tough times, and how his struggles are probably affecting the average person’s wallet as well.


What You Need To Know

  • Gas climbing well above $5.00 a gallon has a been a burden on truck drivers

  • Drive Jeff Davis had to spend more than $1,000 to fill up his tank on Tuesday

  • Davis has been driving for 30 years, but said he might have to sell his truck soon

  • These issues also translate to breakdowns in the supply chain, which could raise prices at the grocery store

Jeff Davis has been driving trucks since 1992. He used to drive across the country, but said he now stays “this side of the Mississippi.”

“I’m not an inside person. I like it outside. And I like being my own boss for the most part,” Davis said. 

In those 30 years, he’s seen some high gas prices. But nothing like these, he said.

“They’re unprecedented. We’ve never had prices this high,” Davis said. “Two and a half years ago I was getting fuel in Kentucky for $1.99 a gallon, and now you see it’s almost $6.00 a gallon.”

In particular, it was $5.69 a gallon for diesel fuel at the truck stop in Florence where Davis was filling up.

His total came out to $1,119 to put 196 gallons of fuel in his tank.

It takes him about 20 to 30 minutes to fill up, and the fuel doesn’t last him long, driving 400 to 650 miles a day.

“If I’m running hard, I have to fill up every day,” Davis said.

He might enjoy being his own boss, but not enough to spend more than $1,000 a day on fuel.

“Right now, I’m just trying to keep my head above water. I have a truck payment, insurance and everything. I really don’t know where we’re going to go from here,” he said. “They keep going up, I can’t afford to run the truck. I can’t run it and lose money.”

He said he may have to sell his truck and find a new career soon.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years, so I don’t know. It’s really unsettling,” Davis said.

For anyone thinking, “at least my gas bill isn’t that bad,” a quick look at the grocery bill, which is likely higher than normal as well, shows what happens when there are breakdowns in the supply chain.

To see up close why issues arise with the supply chain, look no further than Davis and all the other truck drivers begrudgingly filling up their tanks.

“Everything’s delivered by a truck, you know,” Davis said. “We can’t continue eating the costs. The [pay] rates have gone up small amounts. But not enough to cover this,” he said. “When it comes down to it, if you can’t make money, I don’t know what you do. If you can’t make a living, what do you do? You have to find something else.”

That phrase people say to each other when they see someone struggling, “just keep trucking,” doesn’t quite work in this instance.