Nine.com.au.<\/a><\/p>\n“Because we wear the fuel cost, which means that, with any more costs going up, it’s not even worth us staying open.”<\/p>\n
Shephard said Crown Cabs’ regular customers in regional communities rely on the service for wheelchair-friendly trips or to attend healthcare appointments.<\/p>\n
Often, drivers are heading back to town with no passengers.<\/p>\n
These “empty” rides still use up fuel and after diesel surged to over $3.20 a litre, that is potentially hundreds of dollars wasted.<\/p>\n
![\"Taxi\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/f579bc80-bb9c-41e1-9001-a9e50bc776cf.jpeg\")
Taxi companies cannot pass on the spiralling costs to customers due to tight regulations. (Getty Images\/iStockphoto)![\"Generic](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/9ef4d04c-4dc5-4cb3-9a58-2dfd80494ce9.jpeg\")
The price of diesel has hit $3.20 a litre nationally. (Louie Douvis)<\/p>\n
“Our costs have gone up considerably,” Shephard\ufeff added.<\/p>\n
“It’s really tough. And there doesn’t seem to be any reaction or any support from the state or federal government.”<\/p>\n
Some taxi drivers have reported\ufeff seeing their weekly diesel bill double from around $400 to over $800.<\/p>\n
But taxi companies are not able to pass on the cost of fuel to customers due to the industry’s tight regulations.<\/p>\n
There is legislation capping the maximum fares that taxis can charge in Victoria, meaning surcharges to cope with the cost of fuel are out of the question.\ufeff<\/p>\n
Even if they could, Shephard said her customers are “already struggling enough” as it is.<\/p>\n
“We want to be there to help those people. We’re not going to be raising our prices ridiculously – and we can’t,” she said.<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/1904913e-3657-4ea7-8993-c4483bf04cb2.jpeg\")
The price of diesel from this service station at Palm Beach on Sydney’s Northern Beaches has hit $3.39 per litre. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
\ufeffShephard said there has been a rise of independent drivers who refuse to play by the rules too.<\/p>\n
“We have to abide by everything,” Shephard said.<\/p>\n
“And you’ve got all the idependents who are just rogue cowboys who take work away from those doing the right thing and give the industry a bad name.”<\/p>\n
For companies like Crown Cabs, it remains to be seen if the federal government’s decision to halve the fuel excise for three months will help lower costs.<\/p>\n
The government convened in a national cabinet meeting yesterday to urgently discuss ways to ease the supply issues and high prices impacting motorists.\ufeff<\/p>\n
Fuel availability is dwindling around the country as stock is depleted.\ufeff<\/p>\n
In Victoria alone, out of a total of 1,627 petrol stations, 82 are without diesel and 40 are without any petrol at all.\ufeff<\/p>\n
NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some owners fear they will shut down if spiralling costs at the pump don’t ease soon. Crown Cabs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":586590,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-586589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586589"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586589\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/586590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Crown](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/3648ae95-4bc5-44d6-8cf1-59762d6f2375.jpeg\")
Crown Cabs Victoria is doing it tough as regional communities face skyrocketing fuel costs and shortages. (Supplied)<\/p>\n