diesel ran out at Truckstops in Napier and Bay View<\/a>, drivers had to re-divert them to Hastings, an additional 12-20km drive and \u201ceven more fuel burned\u201d, James said.<\/p>\nHe knew of other drivers who had to refuse jobs because they could not recoup the fuel costs.<\/p>\n
The Whanganui BP Truckstop on Heads Rd has not yet run out of diesel.<\/p>\n
James said Sharp As Linehaul got 80% of its fuel from the Whanganui site and would be significantly affected if it ran out.<\/p>\n
Fuel prices have increased many other operational costs in the past month.<\/p>\n
Adblue, a fluid added to diesel engines to reduce harmful emissions, increased 10c a litre.<\/p>\n
Sharp As used 8% Adblue to every litre of diesel, James said.<\/p>\n
Engine oil rose 20% and tyre prices 3% overnight from Tuesday March 31 to Wednesday April 1.<\/p>\n
James said his staff had requested wage increases to cover the rise in the cost of living.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fuel bill is our biggest hurt, but it\u2019s right across everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
James said they were \u201cvery transparent\u201d with customers about why they had to increase prices.<\/p>\n
Prices were updated weekly based on the real-time fuel costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just very fortunate we have good, loyal customers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rising operational costs would inevitably affect grocery prices, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hurting everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dave Hoskin Carriers managing director Darrell Hoskin said his company was hesitant to raise prices at first but had since adjusted them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s certainly been tough,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The company re-established its fuel adjustment factor (Faf) with customers from February 1.<\/p>\n
Hoskin said customers understood the reason for the rise.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone knows what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diesel cost $1.43 a litre at New Zealand Truckstops the week of February 1, Hoskins said.<\/p>\n
Diesel is $3.86 a litre this week.<\/p>\n
Dave Hoskin Carriers spent $70,000 to $80,000 on fuel in a typical month but was now paying about $160,000 a month, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, our diesel bill is doubled.\u201d<\/p>\n
Its Faf rate is 26.99% this week and is updated weekly.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can … only worry about the day in front of you at the moment,\u201d Hoskin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one\u2019s really got any control over what\u2019s going to happen next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the company\u2019s focus had been on operating as economically as possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe downfall is this is always going to revert back to the person going to the supermarket, to the dairy … because those products have still got to get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might not have the cost increases straight away, but it\u2019s coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hoskin said there was one silver lining he and some of his drivers had noticed \u2013 fewer people driving recklessly and speeding.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe everyone is trying to drive a little bit nicer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are trying to be more economical.\u201d<\/p>\n
James said he had also noticed fewer speeding cars on the road.<\/p>\n
Erin Smith is a multimedia journalist based in Whanganui.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt would force us out of business if we had absorbed how much our fuel bill has gone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368518,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[40728,9218,138,3595,8556,23852,54239,85989,2082,2678,4745,6098,13484,3594,20557,3302,111,139,69,1118,2847,193,12937,10042,1515,78776,8229,2044,112,85019,26697,1883],"class_list":{"0":"post-370686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-affect","9":"tag-before","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-by","12":"tag-companies","13":"tag-consumers","14":"tag-diesel","15":"tag-essentials","16":"tag-for","17":"tag-fuel","18":"tag-groceries","19":"tag-hard","20":"tag-higher","21":"tag-hit","22":"tag-hitting","23":"tag-matter","24":"tag-new-zealand","25":"tag-newzealand","26":"tag-nz","27":"tag-of","28":"tag-only","29":"tag-other","30":"tag-prices","31":"tag-rises","32":"tag-surge","33":"tag-surging","34":"tag-they","35":"tag-time","36":"tag-transport","37":"tag-trucking","38":"tag-warn","39":"tag-whanganui"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=370686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/370686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=370686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=370686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=370686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}