Fuel prices forcing truck industry to the wall
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Truck drivers are threatening a full-scale blockade. (Reuters: David Gray, file photo )
Truck drivers across the country will next week park their rigs and stop work to protest against rising fuel costs and declining pay rates.
Organisers aim to shut the industry down for a fortnight, with drivers complaining they've had to bear the brunt of a rise of 50 cents a litre in the price of diesel in less than a year.
They say while the big players can pass on that added cost, smaller owner-operators are paying thousands extra on their fuel bill every month.
The Transport Workers Union (TWU) says the soaring costs and a desperation to meet repayments on trucks are forcing truckies to work harder, longer, and faster, putting them and the wider public at risk.
The union's Tony Sheldon says the TWU is now threatening to escalate the protest into a full-scale blockade.
"It's breaking point. Drivers are literally being forced to put their lives and other's lives at risk," he said.
'Falling like flies'
Every day Peter Davis cranks up his truck for the run from Sydney to Newcastle.
He owns three heavy haulers and each burns hundreds of litres of fuel a week, and with diesel prices doubling in the last few years, he's feeling the pinch.
"How many blokes have got to fall over and repossess their houses and break up families?" he said.
"I know a lot of blokes have got out of it. A lot of blokes have parked their trucks up and given it away.
"I've just cut my fleet back by one truck. The people that can't survive that just can't keep going on with these costs are the owner-drivers, small businesses, who are supposed to be the engine room of the economy but they're falling over like flies."
Geoff Trotter runs Fuel Trac, an independent consultancy which monitors fuel prices. He says the truckies' protests won't do any good.
"It's no good protesting; rather they'd be better off concentrating on what they can do about the situation," he said.
Mr Trotter says while petrol is the dominant fuel in Australia, in Asia diesel is king and that's why the price here is sky-rocketing.
"The good old days pretty much came to an end back in 2003 when the demand profile for diesel in the Asia Pacific region changed quite dramatically," he said.
"People have got to understand that in Australia it's used principally for mining, agriculture and transport, whereas in the Asia Pacific region it's used principally for power generation.
"And the growth of the industrialised economies in China and India have put huge demands on diesel production."
Price rises
The Asian demand for diesel is driving up prices here in Australia. China is the greatest guzzler of all. In 2004 its consumption of diesel grew by 20 billion litres a day - more than Australia's total yearly demand.
Mr Davis says for the nation's truckies, that not only means pain at the pump but more time behind the wheel and less to spend on the upkeep of their vehicles.
"[Truckies are] cutting costs on maintenance and that's because people can't afford to maintain the trucks," he said.
"That's where road safety is going to impact a lot and that impacts on the public."
The Mr Sheldon from the Transport Workers Union says 228 people have died in the past year in smashes involving heavy vehicles.
"The fuel costs mean the drivers work longer, harder and faster to meet the client demand," he said.
"More drivers are getting killed, more people on our roads are being injured as a result of the pressures on truck drivers driven by economics of the clients."
Among Australia's biggest operators of road freight are the major retailers Coles and Woolworths.
Woolworths alone averages more than 100,000 truck movements a month and the company's fuel bill has soared by millions of dollars, a cost contributing to higher food prices.
"The major retailers across the country are lying when they say that the prices have to go up because of fuel, because they're actually not paying it to many of the people that cart their goods," Mr Sheldon said.
Cutting costs
But Geoff Thomas from Woolworths disagrees.
"Our response to that is we're on a drive for efficiency in the industry but the most responsible thing we can do right now is to pay fuel levies to all of the contractors we engage with," he said.
"We don't engage with owner drivers, we engage with the heavyweights of the industry."
But even the heavyweights are looking to cut costs and Woolworths is exploring alternative fuels for its fleet such as biodiesel and liquefied natural gas.
"We are conducting trials with our own fleet that we run in Victoria and I think it's fair to say we're optimistic that in the future a reasonable proportion of our fleet will be fired off alternative fuels," Mr Thomas said.
But until then, everyone is stuck in the diesel price spiral. Earlier this month about 100 truck drivers took their fuel frustrations out on to the F3 motorway north of Sydney in a "go slow" protest.
But Mr Sheldon warns that "go slow" could soon escalate into "no flow"; in other words a blockade.
"There would be hardly a driver in the country, whether they be employees or owner drivers, that won't be ruling out blockades," he said.
Twenty-nine years ago more than 1,000 trucks jammed the Hume Highway in New South Wales as drivers protested against road taxes and freight costs.
While the union isn't ruling out another blockade, some drivers reckon it would do their cause more harm than good.
"It's not the way to go. People won't feel sorry for us if they're being disrupted," owner-operator Tim Squires said.
Staying in business
Like thousands of other operators, Tim Squires' diesel bill has surged. He now has to find an extra $140,000 a year to fuel his four trucks.
He says the only way to recover costs is to raise the fuel levy, or for consumers to pay a lot more for their goods.
"We've just got to pass it on, there's no other option, we've got to pass it on. We feel for the public but if we want to stay in business that's what we have to do," he said.
Industry analysts like Mr Trotter from Fuel Trac argue that trucking operators already get significant tax relief of up to 38 cents a litre on their diesel.
He says that the industry is at the crossroads and that drivers must evolve or face extinction.
"I'm afraid they're going to have to start making significant changes to the vehicles they drive and the freight tasks that they perform," he said.
"If they don't make those changes then they will be dinosaurs and they will disappear."
Mr Davis says he's already made changes to the way he operates. To him this is not just about livelihoods - he says soaring diesel costs may be driving businesses to the wall but it's also pushing drivers to take their own lives.
"I've had two blokes talking in roadhouses and confided in me that that was their next option," he said.
"These blokes I've spoken to in roadhouses, I haven't seen them since. Have they necked themselves?"
After 30 years cruising the highways, Mr Davis says he still loves driving the big rigs. But like many truckies, the rising price of diesel could be the death of his business.
Mr Sheldon says truckies face a bleak future.
"Truck drivers are someone's dad, son, husband and they are in desperate need to make sure that they can provide for their families," he said.
"That means that they've got one or two choices; either fight back or turn around and get out of the industry, and when you've got hundreds of thousands of dollars in your future invested in it you haven't got anywhere else to go but to fight."
Based on a report by Mark Willacy for ABC1's The 7:30 Report.
