The owner of a small trucking company has delivered a blunt message to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as surging fuel prices spark fears of major supply chain disruptions.

The US-Israel conflict with Iran has led to significant fuel price increases.

Experts are now warning that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz – a major shipping channel for the world’s oil – could lead to even more cost pressures.

Australia has just 29 days of petrol consumption, and its farming and transport sectors are already being hit hard by the rising fuel costs.

Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham, a truck driver said the surge in fuel prices was making it impossible for owner-drivers like him to survive.

He then delivered a blunt message to the Prime Minister.  

“Pardon the language, but get your s*** together, mate. Give us some relief,” truck driver Adrian Press said.

“Let us just make a simple dollar to make a simple living. We don’t want to be millionaires. We just want to survive in this world.”

He said drivers like him had been forced to bear the cost of the fuel price increases.

“You’re meant to run a business at a profit, and right now, with the fuel hike… it’s costing us 50 cents a kilometre out of our own pocket to do the same job,” Mr Press said.

“You’ve got to cut your costs where you can, but there’s no cost left to be cut. We’re just kicked in the backside every time we turn the key on.

“Like, over the last 12 months, I’ve seen my bank balance just diminish week by week.”

Mr Press said he needed to fill up two semi-trailer trucks each week, and fuel prices had already pushed up costs by $3,000.

“We use, on average, 2,500 litres each truck per week. My fuel bills for one week now is going to be just on $13,000, where it was just under $10,000,” he said.

“Like, $13,000 a year just to register one truck – that’s without trailers. And I’m not alone.”

Asked how he covered the cost, the truck driver said he had no choice but to pay the extra costs out of his own pocket.

He said larger companies either refused absorb the increase or would use it to negotiate cheaper rates.

“It’s unaffordable. That’s why I’m lost for words, mate. Like, I’ve been doing this over 35 years, we need to get some help,” he said.

“And it’s not just affecting me as a transport operator. It’s the little, poor old, 17-year-old that’s just started work living out in the country, you know, like he’s only making a couple hundred dollars as it is.

“We need to get some reform. We can’t keep covering the cost…  I don’t get (how) this government thinks everyone can keep just picking money out of nowhere to keep surviving.”

The truck driver said that without truck drivers like him, Australia’s supply chains would break down.

“Without us, mate, and I’m not pulling your leg…  we need transport,” he said.

“The rails out over west, the rails out up north because of the floods and so forth. Road transport is the only way we have to get what people need.”

The comments came after some of the nation’s largest manufacturers warned Australia could face a “Covid 2.0” hit to the economy.

“I’m calling it personally Covid 2.0,” said the managing director of Impact International, a company that makes food, cosmetic and pharmaceutical tubes.

“When the pandemic started to reveal itself, the circumstances were almost the same. People were scared. People couldn’t get information, people couldn’t get pricing, people couldn’t get delivery confirmation. And people also couldn’t get an accurate shipping date.”

 “And this is exactly what we’re seeing play out in supply chains. Again, it’s really like the start of a pandemic.”