By Haulage industry in crisis as cost to fuel a lorry up £20,000
In yet more added pressure soaring fuel prices have put the haulage industry in crisis, as the cost of running one lorry is up £20,000 a year, a freight boss has said.
Lesley O’Brien, director of Freight Link Europe, said “pretty much everything you buy comes on the back of a truck” adding customers are paying more.
The RAC said it now costs £98 to fill the average car with petrol and £101.86 with diesel.
The motoring group has called for “radical government intervention”.
The BBC reported the latest figures from the RAC show the average cost of a litre of petrol rose from 177.88p on Sunday to 178.50p on Monday – a rise of 0.6p in 24 hours.
Over the same recorded period, the average diesel price rose from 185.01p to 185.20p.
RAC fuel spokesperson Simon Williams said: “Drivers need to brace themselves for average fuel prices rocketing to £2 a litre which would mean a fill-up would rise to an unbelievable £110.
“We strongly urge the government to take drastic action to help soften the impact for drivers from these never-before-seen pump prices.”
In March, the government cut fuel duty by 5p a litre, citing that it would save a car driver on average £100 a year, a van driver £200, and hauliers £1,500.
Ms. O’Brien told the BBC’s Today programme: “This certainly is a crisis as we’ve seen fuel prices escalate over the last year by 50% and no sight of a stop, so we absolutely as an industry need to keep on top of this.
“As a country, we need to understand we need to support our transport industry which is the infrastructure of the whole economy,” she said.
“But never before has it been so high,” she said. “As an example, to run one of my artic vehicles is now costing me £20,000 more per year than it did last year.”
Road Haulage Association (RHA) has been lobbying the government for a rebate on fuel duty “for quite some time now”, according to Ms. O’Brien.
The group said that smaller haulage companies did not have fuel surcharges built into their contracts with customers.
They said around 35% of fuel costs are duty taxes and the RHA wants the government to return this to “Essential users” the RHA said.
Ms. O’Brien said: “If we help the haulage industry and we have an essential user rebate we will help everybody because pretty much everything you buy comes on the back of a truck and we will be able to pass that on to the end-user.”
