Truckies pass on fuel hike

By Nathan Johnston
DANDENONG companies have been forced to adopt fuel levies to cope with rocketing diesel costs.
Membrey’s Transport and operations manager Harry Kent said companies had little choice but to adopt an eight per cent levy.
“The price of fuel is a killer. It wasn’t long ago we were paying 89 cents a litre for diesel. Now it’s $1.20 and we were not getting paid any more to move the goods,” Mr Kent said.
“That’s why we’re doing it. The fuel is our biggest cost next to our insurance. Customers aren’t rapt about the levy, but they understand that it’s necessary.”
He said the industry would be forced to increase the levy if the prices remained high.
Despite the increasing pressures, Mr Kent said the industry was too strong and too important to the Australian economy to crumble.
“People think the dock workers have clout. John Howard needs to see our industry stop for a week. The economy would stop.”
Victorian Transport Association (VTA) executive director Philip Lovel said many transport operators would have been driven to the brink had customers not been made to share the burden.
“At 1 August this year, diesel hit an unprecedented 121.41 cents per litre – the highest price ever.
“That’s a 32 per cent increase since April last year, 41 per cent up from April 2003, and these figures will keep climbing. They aren’t going to go down.”
Mr Lovel said transport operators worked on tight margins, with fuel costs constituting up to 36 per cent of operating costs for a large rural Bdouble, and 14 per cent for smaller urban vehicles.
“These price hikes were eating into already tight margins and would have seen many transport operators forced out of business.
“By attaching a fuel levy to their costs, transport operators are spreading the burden of what is an uncontrollable outside influence on their operating costs.
“The levy is calculable, transparent and is only fair from an economic point of view,” Mr Lovel said.
He said a recent presentation by Shell to the VTA gave a comprehensive overview of the various factors affecting the current global oil market – politics, economic factors, market speculators and stock levels.
“These factors will continue to hurt industry and affect transport on an unprecedented scale. This is something that is beyond industry control.
“We are asking customers to ease the burden of these external costs so that they can be spread more broadly – and more fairly,” Mr Lovel said.