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October 6, 1999 9:55 AM, EDT

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — There is no sign that rising prices of petroleum and diesel fuel have “topped off,” a commodities specialist told truck fleet managers last week, even though the national diesel average price failed to rise for the first time since early June.

Participants at the Fleet Fueling Expo heard Elaine Levin, vice president and futures specialist with Morgan Stanley Dean Witter in Washington, D.C., advise them to adopt hedging strategies that would reduce the risks they face in dealing with volatile oil prices.

Average retail diesel fuel prices have climbed to $1.226 a gallon as of Sept. 27, up from a historic low of 95.3 cents in late February. The rises have triggered fuel-cost adjustments to many freight contract rates as oil-producing nations have restricted their output.

Levin, at the meeting held Sept. 26 to 28 at the Opryland Hotel, said that few analysts had predicted that diesel prices would fall as drastically as they did early this year, and few expected the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to exercise sufficient discipline over its members to produce the kind of price runup that has occurred since then.

For the full story, see the Oct. 4 print edition of Transport Topics. .