FUEL COST TROUBLES * WORLDWIDE

* Australia - Trucks run dry

The spiralling cost of fuel is hitting motorists hard, but it's hitting the 47,000 companies in the trucking industry even harder



Melbourne,Australia -The Melbourne Herald Sun, by Stuart St Clair -May 27, 2008: -- ... Last week I spoke to one owner-driver who runs a B-double - one of the articulated trucks with two trailers you see on the Hume Freeway... He is now spending $17,000 a month on fuel, compared with $12,000 in October last year, but he hasn't been able to increase his freight rates... Many small operators and owner drivers have been trying to absorb the rising cost of fuel. Many are locked into fixed-price contracts, so imposing a fuel surcharge as the airlines or the major trucking companies are doing is not an option... Many of these companies will go out of business in the next few months unless they can get their customers to renegotiate their contracts... There are companies that will need to increase their freight rates by more than 10 per cent just to start breaking even again... Some freight forwarders will argue they shouldn't have to pay more, but they face a stark alternative... They can either pay higher rates to the companies they deal with now, or watch them go out of business and try to negotiate new contracts with the trucking companies that survive... (Video from YouTube, by mrsbugga - April 26, 2008: "Big Truck, Little Driveway!" - B Double Argosy coming in a single gate)



* France - Truckers stranded at French port

Cherbourg,France -The Press Association (UK) -26 May 2008: -- Up to 20 Irish truck drivers have been stranded in Cherbourg for four days after French fishermen angry at high fuel costs blockaded the port... It is one of a number hit by the nationwide protest which has seen the trucks, loaded with meat, vegetables and other produce, unable to leave... Freight operator Derek Lenehan, who has a lorry with 40,000 euro worth of potatoes bound for Dublin stuck at the port, said he is concerned they will perish if left any longer... Ferry company Celtic Link transported a number of trucks from Rosslare to Cherbourg last Thursday.. The Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA) is urging the Department of Transport to pressure the French government into resolving the bitter row... The Department of Foreign Affairs said it was liaising with French authorities over the dispute...