Vege Growers Hit Out At Ongoing Fuel Surcharges
February 12th, 2009
Vegetable growers are angry transport companies are still enforcing high fuel surcharges and warn if the practice continues many could be out of business which will also hit consumers in the pocket. Brian Garguilo, a tomato grower in Christchurch and Nelson, says his freight bill each month is about $30,000 but on top of this he has to pay up to 15% for a diesel surcharge. He says he cannot pass the extra costs on so the higher transport costs are directly affecting profitability. Peter Silcock of Horticulture NZ adds, “…they were meant to be temporary and they should be well and truly gone by now.”
Transport costs still rising. However, Road Transport Forum CEO, Tony Friedlander, is defending the surcharges remaining in place saying despite falling fuel prices, trucking companies are facing rising costs in other areas and are still struggling to make ends meet. “It’s certainly not an easy time for people in the road transport industry… we would like to have lower costs as well but if we don’t have lower costs in actual fact, we certainly can’t reduce our rates. If people were to follow that approach in our industry, they’d go broke very quickly.” He adds there is unlikely to be any reduction in freight rates in the near future.
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