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January 17, 2001 9:00 AM, EST

The Defense Department is slated to approve a new regime for paying fuel surcharges in late January that will then go into effect April 1, according to an official of the Military Traffic Management Command.

The potential final draft of the policy says the Pentagon will pay a fuel surcharge to motor carriers when the national average price of diesel rises above $1.30 a gallon as reported by the Department of Energy.

The payment schedule breaks down fuel prices into 10-cent increments, for which there is a 1% addition for each time a threshold is crossed.

As an example, when fuel crosses the $1.30 mark, carriers get a 1% increase. When diesel is above $1.40 a gallon, carriers get a 2% bump, and when, as is currently the case, diesel costs more than $1.50 a gallon, trucking companies would collect a 3% surcharge.

For the full story, see the Jan. 8 print edition of Transport Topics. .