00:12Sean Mulvaney is on the final stretch back home to Melbourne after a run to Sydney.
00:17This is one of the main corridors for all the freight, especially with the food and
00:21the market, all express freight.
00:24So trucks are going up and down here, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
00:28This has always been an industry with tight margins, but the oil crisis is pushing it
00:34to the brink.
00:34It's really, really tough at the moment.
00:38The climate out here with truck driving is, you've either got to suck it up a little bit
00:44I suppose, or park it.
00:47If you're stressed about the cost of filling your car, imagine running one of these.
00:52It used to take about $2,000 to fill this truck.
00:55And the last couple of weeks that we've filled it, it's nearly $4,000.
01:00So it's nearly doubled.
01:02Yeah, we're saying roughly 70-75% of operators won't survive the six months.
01:08Milton Wood is now charging clients a 15% fuel levy.
01:12They weren't happy. No, no.
01:14Everyone's got to put their price up to cover the increase in the freight charge.
01:19So the public are going to see it in the next month or so.
01:23The Federal Government's providing zero interest loans to help manufacturers and transport operators
01:28absorb the hit.
01:30It's also cut the fuel excise and reduced the road user charge to zero.
01:35But that's only till the end of June.
01:36So we would like to see the government, while they're doing budgets and preparing for budgets,
01:41to consider keeping that at zero till at least the end of the year,
01:46or until diesel becomes below $2 a litre.
01:52Rail is still the largest single mover of freight in Australia.
01:56But that's bulk freight, like wheat and coal.
02:00Pretty much everything else we consume is carried across the country by trucks, big and small.
02:06And when the cost of trucking goes up, so does everything else.
02:10You are paying more for your kids' milk.
02:12You are going to pay more for your daily essentials.
02:15Life is going to get much more difficult for everyone.
02:18There's definitely frustration that this wasn't caused by an act of God or a natural disaster.
02:23It was caused by the US President going to war in Iran and his failure so far to bring it
02:28to an end.
02:29Whether or not they need a war over there or not, you know, it's irrelevant for our industry.
02:34We need to be able to, you know, be risk averse and we need to be able to ensure that
02:38we can ride the highs and lows in the future.
02:42I really hope that the industry stays alive and kicking,
02:46because what everyone touches or they've got in their possession has been on a truck at one stage or another
02:52throughout its life.
02:53Everything.
02:54And whatever fuels them in the future, that won't change.
02:57Ben Knight, ABC News, Melbourne.
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