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A NEW (FUEL) WORLD * New Zealand - It's enough to drive you trucking mad
Transport operators are the obvious victims of fuel increases, and the Government has slapped more road user charges on his industry at a time when they can least afford it
Auckland,New Zealand -Stuff.co/The Dominion Post, by NICK CHURCHOUSE -5 July 2008: -- Strange things are happening. Rival supermarkets are helping each other transport goods. Couriers are encouraging their customers to opt for slower deliveries and pay less... Builders are car-pooling in the company ute, Tupperware is becoming a luxury item and truck drivers are moving to Australia... And it is all related to oil... Far from the service station forecourt, the downstream impact of surging international oil prices has hit nearly every aspect of life as we know it... With an oil-derived cost increase in many commodity prices, manufactured goods and transport costs, it is hard to find a corner of any community that is shielded from the record prices for a barrel of oil. They hit US$145 this week, double the price of a year ago... That has meant pain in the pocket for motorists, with petrol and diesel prices rising steadily alongside oil, but the long arm of the oil producers has dipped into the pockets of nearly every person on the planet via the myriad aspects of industry that oil affects... Transport operators are the obvious victims of fuel increases, and Taupo trucker Shades Taylor is aghast that the Government has slapped more road user charges on his industry at a time when they can least afford it. The charges are going up 7 per cent... Truck drivers protested outside Parliament and around the country yesterday about road user charge increases, described by Transport Minister Annette King as "reasonably insignificant"... Motorways in many main centres were jammed with big rigs protesting for several hours, creating a resonably significant statement about the sentiment within the truck driving industry... Mr Taylor, who runs a 10-truck company, says the real insult is in the Government's failure to improve roading, which in the long run would save truckies money... The emphasis is on compliance, raising regulations, standards and charges, rather than investing the income from road user charges in roads, he says... (Picture by JOHN SELKIRK/Dominion Post - REVVED UP: Traffic on Auckland's Queen St comes to a halt during the truckie's protest. As fuel prices rise, some people are getting angry but others are finding ways to cope) Labels: fuel costs crisis
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