The food transportation and distribution industry has been radically disrupted over the last few years, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Food prices, for example, have been seen to increase considerably in the wave of economic inflation. As two main driving factors in the context of food transportation, (1) the rising diesel prices and (2) the prevailing shortage of truck drivers have posed threatening challenges, leading to a substantial surge in transportation costs and subsequently contributing to higher food market prices. Based on collected data consolidated from multiple sources, this study conducts a comprehensive analysis to elucidate the impact of diesel prices and driver availability on food prices. To this end, we have curated a panel dataset encompassing key variables such as diesel prices, truck driver availability, and food prices for the most popular food commodities (i.e., apples, potatoes, onions, and tomatoes) pre-, amid, and post-pandemic of COVID-19. Employing fixed effects regression, this paper specifically investigates the extent to which the surge in fuel prices and truck-driver availability has contributed to the overall increase in food prices in the United States fresh food market. With high statistical significance, the experiment results show that the rising diesel prices and the shortage of truck drivers’ availability have a significant positive impact on food price margin, ceteris paribus. The contributions of this study are multifold. First, our study enriches the food price literature by specifically considering the two fundamental root factors: truck-driver availability and diesel price. Second, this study provides data-driven empirical analysis to unveil how diesel prices, driver availability, and the significant impact of the pandemic drive food prices. Third, considering the impact of COVID-19, the food price sensitivity to diesel prices and driver availability obtained from this study renders practical guidelines for policy implications, especially in the age of a devastating pandemic.

中文翻译：

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疫情前、疫情中和疫情后受柴油价格和卡车司机短缺影响的食品运输和价格


在过去的几年里，食品运输和分销行业受到了根本性的颠覆，尤其是在 COVID-19 大流行期间。例如，食品价格被认为在经济通货膨胀的浪潮中大幅上涨。作为食品运输的两个主要驱动因素，（1） 柴油价格上涨和 （2） 卡车司机普遍短缺构成了威胁性挑战，导致运输成本大幅飙升，进而导致食品市场价格上涨。根据从多个来源收集的数据，本研究进行了全面分析，以阐明柴油价格和驾驶员可用性对食品价格的影响。为此，我们策划了一个面板数据集，其中包含 COVID-19 大流行之前、中期和之后最受欢迎的食品商品（即苹果、土豆、洋葱和西红柿）的柴油价格、卡车司机可用性和食品价格等关键变量。本文采用固定效应回归，专门研究了燃料价格和卡车司机可用性的飙升在多大程度上促进了美国新鲜食品市场食品价格的整体上涨。实验结果表明，柴油价格上涨和卡车司机短缺对食品价格利润率 ceteris paribus 具有显著的正向影响，具有较高的统计显著性。这项研究的贡献是多方面的。首先，我们的研究通过专门考虑两个基本根本原因来丰富食品价格文献：卡车司机的可用性和柴油价格。 其次，本研究提供数据驱动的实证分析，以揭示柴油价格、司机可用性以及大流行的重大影响如何推动食品价格。第三，考虑到 COVID-19 的影响，从这项研究中获得的食品价格对柴油价格和驾驶员可用性的敏感性为政策影响提供了实用指南，尤其是在毁灭性大流行的时代。