00:02The impact's been extreme. I would say worse than COVID. So this current month now, I just
00:12got my fuel bill this morning. It came in at $92,000. Sorry. February's bill was $40,000.
00:24So the impact that it's having is just, it's unbelievable. And people just don't understand
00:29until they're actually going through it. The biggest killer was March because the fuel
00:36prices spike so high, so quickly. I couldn't contact customers in the middle of the month
00:42and say, look, I'm going to have to put, you know, a 40 or 50% fuel levy on. So
00:47the cost
00:48that I've had to wear there is just astronomical. And going forward, the customers have been
00:52great. But again, it's all good for them to be great. But at the end of the day, it's
00:58going to impact the consumer. Whether it be groceries or building houses or whatever
01:03they're doing, the price is going to skyrocket and it's going to keep going up.
01:08Oh, the mental stress is just unbelievable. I do drive as well. So to sit in a truck for,
01:14you know, hours on end driving between cities and just thinking about all the things that
01:19you can't actually change. Every truck driver across this country, it was a struggle already
01:24before all this. It's never been an easy industry to be in. And just to have even added pressure is
01:32just, it's crippling. And I know of multiple owner operators that have parked them up or if not got
01:38them for sale. So the interest-free loans are not worth the paper that they're written on.
01:49When you get told you're struggling and you've got to go to the bank and meet the bank's criteria to
01:54get a normal everyday loan. Well, we all know how tough that is already without starting on the
01:58back foot. So that's a waste of time. Just everything that we need for a normal loan. And I said,
02:06that's fine. I said, but my current financials after February, March and April's fuel bill is not
02:13going to be great. And he says, well, that's what we need to get the loan through. So that's bad
02:19luck.
02:20Oh, I think in a lot of instances, it's a little too late, but I think they needed to do
02:27an emergency
02:27relief package rather than interest-free loans. That, it just blows me away. And it's the same
02:34with the fuel excise. So everyone had the idea that they were, we were getting the whole 52 cents
02:42back as a fuel tax credit on our bass, but that's not the way that they've calculated it. So I've
02:47recently found out that because they've given the cut at the Bowser, our fuel tax credits have only
02:54gone up 0.4 of a cent. So from 20.2 cents to 20.6 cents. And I think everyone
03:03had the idea that
03:04they were going to be getting 50 odd cents back per litre. But the government said, no, we've given
03:11a discount at the Bowser. So you can't have it all. Oh, look, it's very difficult. You know, you got
03:16to
03:16try and hold it together for not only the drivers, but for my kids as well. I've got four kids
03:23at home
03:23too. So I can't afford to lose this. I've got to pay my wages so I can feed me kids.
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