The fuel crisis had brought to the forefront the importance of fuel, particularly diesel, which needed to be used more efficiently, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just what\u2019s in our trucks, but it\u2019s what fuels our fishing vessels. It\u2019s what goes into the tractors to harvest the crops. It\u2019s how the farmer gets out to feed his animals. It has a big role to play in our everyday lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mainfreight had been speaking to KiwiRail but was failing to get action, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying, but [we\u2019re] frustrated to be perfectly honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other organisations, like Auckland Transport, also needed to make adjustments to make diesel usage more efficient, he said.<\/p>\n
It should reconsider its position on the idea of allowing freight vehicles to use bus lanes, Braid said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThink about the amount of diesel idling that goes on because we can\u2019t use a bus lane.\u201d<\/p>\n
Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown was not fond of the idea, saying it would just cause more congestion.<\/p>\n
Kevin Laskey has owned Laskey’s Auto and petrol station for 26 years. Photo \/ Charlotte Cook, RNZ<\/p>\n
He told Nine to Noon a better alternative would be to have trucks operating at night.<\/p>\n
\u201cGet the trucks on the road at night … it\u2019s a lot cheaper to pick up a container at night than the daytime,\u201d Brown said.<\/p>\n
He said the warehouse companies were obstructing that change, and if truck companies passed on their increased fuel costs to the storage companies, they would start opening at night.<\/p>\n
Brown said crowded bus lanes were already a problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe already have trouble with buses crowding themselves … the buses have to stop, and the next thing will be the truck will be stuck behind the bus idling.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fewer customers at rural garage<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the operator of a north Wairarapa garage and petrol station says people have become much more discerning about where they buy their fuel.<\/p>\n
Kevin Laskey of Pahiatua told Morning Report although his rural fuel station had similar pricing to the nearest city, Palmerston North, he was seeing fewer customers.<\/p>\n
The financial pinch created by the high price of fuel was also affecting the garage side of the business, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely going to be less maintenance on cars, housing, anything like that … everything they have left over has to go to food and and just living really.\u201d<\/p>\n
One customer had come in with a warrant of fitness that was three months\u2019 expired, and metal wires exposed on the tyres, Laskey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019d been driving. He had no choice. And we managed to get some second-hand tyres on the vehicle for him so he could get a warrant.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what we live with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laskey said he thought the Government should reduce GST on fuel to lower the burden on households.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe petrol is a dollar dearer, so they\u2019re making that extra 15 cents on the dollar. Maybe that\u2019s where they could reduce?<\/p>\n
\u201cOr people have to start walking.\u201d<\/p>\n
-RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The fuel crisis had brought to the forefront the importance of fuel, particularly diesel, which needed to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366890,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1975,51,138,4480,2678,10934,1304,111,139,2551,69,90,1560,11590,6642,61,116889],"class_list":{"0":"post-383475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-at","9":"tag-auckland","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-drive","12":"tag-fuel","13":"tag-mayor","14":"tag-morning","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-night","18":"tag-nz","19":"tag-on","20":"tag-report","21":"tag-save","22":"tag-tells","23":"tag-to","24":"tag-truckies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383475","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=383475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366890"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}