Australia’s freight industry teeters on the brink as diesel prices spiral out of control, fuelled by conflict in Iran that has sent global oil costs soaring.
The sector, which shifts 75 per cent of domestic goods according to the Australian Trucking Association, now battles doubled expenses across remote routes like the vast Nullarbor Plain. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese urged restraint in a rare 3.5-minute national broadcast, imploring citizens to use public transport and save fuel for those with no choice.
“These are uncertain times,” Anthony Albanese said during the prime-time televised address. “But I am absolutely certain of this: we will deal with these global challenges, the Australian way.”
For operators like Aaron Fischer in border town Howlong, the plea rings hollow. His road trains, stretching the length of an Olympic pool, cross the 1,200km treeless desert weekly, but shortages plague sparse fuel stops up to 200km apart.
“We’ve had a few [drivers] that went to put fuel in and they’ve had none,” Fischer says. The Australian Institute of Petroleum figures peg diesel at 312.7 cents per litre, up from 180.2 pre-war, ballooning his monthly bill from A$150,000 to $300,000 despite 60-day payment lags.
“I was laying in bed the other night with my laptop, just running through numbers,” he tells the BBC. “I need to know what I’ve got coming in and going out to make sure my maintenance bills are right, my fuel bills are fine, my tyre bills are good.”
A single tank now costs $7,500, double the pre-crisis A$3,600. “Instead of me spending $150,000 a month on fuel, I’m now spending $300,000 a month,” Fischer says. “And we’ve had to come up with that money straight away.” He warns many will falter carrying businesses for two months without returns.
Drivers echo the despair. Michael Webb, midway through a 3,600km Nullarbor haul to Perth, called fill-up costs “out of control.”
“Everything that you get has come off a truck at one point whether it’s your food, your drinks, the shirt you’re wearing, the phone you’re using,” he said. Newcomer William Hawkes rerouted a 5,300km delivery amid dry pumps. Veteran Terry Snell halved his runs. Government loans offer little, says Alex Randall. “Interest-free loans are still debt.”
The Australian Trucking Association fears supply breakdowns unless subsidies arrive swiftly.