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.<\/p>\n
The US-Israel conflict with Iran has led to significant fuel price increases.<\/p>\n
Experts are now warning that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz \u2013 a major shipping channel for the world\u2019s oil \u2013 could lead to even more cost pressures.<\/p>\n
Australia has just 29 days of petrol consumption, and its farming and transport sectors are already being hit hard by the rising fuel costs.<\/p>\n
Speaking to 2GB\u2019s Ben Fordham, a truck driver said the surge in fuel prices was making it impossible for owner-drivers like him to survive.<\/p>\n
He then delivered a blunt message to the Prime Minister. \u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPardon the language, but get your s*** together, mate. Give us some relief,\u201d truck driver Adrian Press said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said drivers like him had been forced to bear the cost of the fuel price increases.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou’re meant to run a business at a profit, and right now, with the fuel hike\u2026 it’s costing us 50 cents a kilometre out of our own pocket to do the same job,\u201d Mr Press said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, over the last 12 months, I’ve seen my bank balance just diminish week by week.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike, $13,000 a year just to register one truck – that’s without trailers. And I’m not alone.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He said larger companies either refused absorb the increase or would use it to negotiate cheaper rates.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it’s not just affecting me as a transport operator. It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get some reform. We can’t keep covering the cost\u2026\u00a0 I don’t get (how) this government thinks everyone can keep just picking money out of nowhere to keep surviving.\u201d<\/p>\n
The truck driver said that without truck drivers like him, Australia\u2019s supply chains would break down.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout us, mate, and I’m not pulling your leg\u2026\u00a0 we need transport,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comments came after some of the nation\u2019s largest manufacturers warned Australia could face a \u201cCovid 2.0\u201d hit to the economy.<\/p>\n