Oil prices are soaring and its affecting every business.  Food prices are out of control as much of the worlds food supply is now being used to produce ethanol, rather than to food the world.  Energy prices affect the cot of nearly every commodity because it must first be shipped to market to be sold.

Many companies including UPS are now restating their earnings reports and forecasts to adjust for higher oil prices.  For a parcel service such as UPS, energy is one of the biggest expenses for shipping goods.  Corporations like UPS and Fedex will continue to get battered as the price of oil goes up.

Their main competitor, US Postal Service which is state owned, can be subsidized by tax dollars to keep the price low.  While the Federal government has always sought to run the postal service at a nominal profit, the losses continue to pile up.  Unlike Fedex and UPS, the postal service can subsidize fuel costs and keep prices low.  If fuel prices continue to rise, shipment through the two independents will be considerably more than USPS which can keep costs low by using tax dollars.

Airlines are also losing heavily on the higher oil prices.  Airline ticket prices have skyrocketed after September 11th and new security measures.  Now with high oil prices, the airlines must again raise ticket prices.  Loyal customers hate to see rate increases and the security and pricing troubles are certainly weighing down the whole industry.

The price of oil can affect nearly everything we buy.  Every item at the store will go up in price as oil costs rise, airline tickets are rising, and so is the cost to send a package cross country.  In this day and age its impossible for even the non-driver to avoid high oil costs.