Fuel prices are climbing across Australia even though supply remains available, prompting truck drivers to warn that long-haul work is becoming financially unsustainable.
Fuel Radar data released on Sunday put the national average for Unleaded 91 at $2.34 a litre, while diesel had risen to $2.76 a litre.
Christopher Roosa, a Victoria-based owner-driver who has spent 32 years in the transport industry, said he had never experienced fuel prices this high.
The independent contractor finds freight work through the Loadshift marketplace. The company has warned that hundreds of truck drivers are under such pressure that they are reconsidering whether to remain in the industry.
‘I’ve been doing this for three decades and I’ve never seen it like this,’ he told Daily Mail.
‘Diesel’s sitting around $2.76 to $2.80 a litre – I’ve watched it jump 15 cents in eight and a half hours at one servo alone.’
The Albanese government removed the final remaining discount on fuel excise early last month, triggering a sharp increase in petrol and diesel prices for millions of motorists.
Pump prices have climbed even higher this month following the closure of a vital east-west oil pipeline in the Middle East. The pipeline, used by Saudi Arabia to avoid the troubled Strait of Hormuz, was shut after being hit in a drone attack.
Christopher Roosa, who’s driven his truck (above) for more than 30 years, said the industry is in the worst state he’s ever seen
The Australian average fuel price for the last 90 days has steadily risen, a spike is seen in early August when the fuel excise cut was scrapped, but it has surged again this month
The average price of Unleaded 91 reached $2.34 on Sunday, while diesel was $2.76 per litre
Mr Roosa said many of the employers he works for were still offering the same discounted rates that applied when the fuel excise was half its current level.
‘Some operators are quoting $1.20 a kilometre, but that doesn’t come close to covering fuel, rego, insurance, maintenance and wages.
‘It’s the small, one-truck operators like me who get hit hardest – the bigger outfits can absorb it, we can’t.
‘I’m parking my truck until prices come back down to around $2 a litre. Anything above that, and it’s just not viable to keep going.’
Loadshift director Mas Mohammad said that although reducing fuel excise would come at a significant cost to the government, the alternative could be even more damaging if Australia’s freight network was brought to a standstill.
‘We understand a cut isn’t free, and we understand the inflation risk,’ Mr Mohammad said.
‘Someone’s paying for this either way – right now, it’s small operators paying with their own margins, and some of them won’t make it to whatever comes next.
‘For many of them out there on the road, an excise cut is the difference between finishing the week and folding the business.’
Director of trucking company Loadshift, Mas Mohammad (above), said his drivers are battling massive losses due to high fuel prices
Mr Mohammad warned the country runs on freight transport such as for produce deliveries to supermarkets (file image)
Over the weekend, the Coalition put forward a proposed ‘fuel price shield’ that would automatically halve the fuel excise for up to three months when the price of crude oil topped $US100 per barrel for two weeks.
This would save drivers about 27c per litre on petrol or diesel and the heavy road user charge would also be halted, further easing pressure on the trucking industry.
The estimated cost of the policy while it was in operation would be almost $1billion per month.
Another owner-driver based in NSW with three years of experience, Frank Capri, told Daily Mail that with no similar plan from the current government, he was considering retiring his truck for good.
‘Diesel’s gone from $2.15 a litre in July to $2.54 now – that’s a 40-cent jump, and it hits everything, not just fuel. It’s tyres, repairs, parts, oil, all of it,’ he said.
‘Customers won’t pay more, so you’re stuck: charge what it actually costs and lose the job, or charge what they’ll pay and go broke doing it either way.
‘As well as cutting the tax excise, bringing back the Emergency Fuel Order would help – but it needs a lower trigger at $1.60 a litre, and it needs to switch on automatically instead of making us apply for it every time.’
The Emergency Fuel Order forces businesses to review and adjust the rates they pay drivers based on fuel prices.
Fuel prices are high around Australia, but particularly in NSW, Queensland and the NT
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said the Coalition’s policy would be funded by another Coalition promise to cut the tobacco excise by 80 per cent.
‘The cut to tobacco excise will raise $8billion of funding,’ he told reporters outside a petrol station in Canberra on Sunday.
‘We worked through that with the Parliamentary Budget Office and that will fully fund the cut to the fuel excise.’
The policy would be ‘anti-inflationary,’ Mr Taylor said, as it would take pressure off transport costs and provide relief for motorists when prices approached $3 per litre at the bowser.
The price of Brent crude oil has repeatedly breached $US100 in recent months.
The Federal budget forecast prices to return to $US80 by mid-2027, but some experts have since predicted oil prices could reach as high as $US150 per barrel as global stockpiles are depleted.
The government temporarily halved fuel excise in April in response to the US and Israel’s war with Iran, slashing about 26 cents per litre from the cost at the bowser.
A scaled-back extension of the discount, at 16 cents per litre for petrol and diesel, lasted until August 2.
Truck drivers say they are under pressure to keep freight transport prices low despite the rising cost of fuel
Treasurer Jim Chalmers dismissed the Coalition policy as a political move performed in response to rising voter support for One Nation.
‘What we’ve seen overnight from Angus Taylor is more about polling numbers than petrol prices,’ he told News24’s Sunday Agenda.
‘He is under very serious political pressure and that matters much more to him than the cost-of-living pressures that people are feeling around the country.’
Labor has not ruled out another temporary cut to fuel excise if international conditions deteriorate.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen is set to travel to Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss the flow of oil to refineries around the world.
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Join the discussion
Should the government step in to save small truckies, or let the market decide their fate?