Jason Tuttle – Tutts Transport, Townsville
Townsville owner-operator Jason Tuttle feels like Australia is entering the start of a Mad Max movie. The Tutts Transport owner has already made the difficult decision to lay off one of his employees, parking one of his trucks to keep the business afloat.
“Parking up the truck will save us between $8,000 and $10,000 a week on fuel costs,” Mr Tuttle explained. “It’s a sad reality. We have a good crew of blokes and we’re like a family, but we also have to cut that usage back.”
A truckie himself, Mr Tuttle normally carts steel. He warned that fewer trucks available would affect the costs and availability of every part of life, from mining to construction.
He predicted similar impacts would be felt across the industry, including agriculture, and that farms would choose not to grow crops this year, fearing that the transportation costs would be too high to move them off the land.
“By the time you cart it from the farms to the markets, then back north to the supermarkets, we could all be paying $15 a kilo for bananas, if you can get them picked at all,” he said. “Everyone deserves to live, everyone deserves to be healthy, but it’s just not going that way.”
Mr Tuttle called on the Federal Government to offer immediate relief, backing NatRoad’s calls to temporarily suspend the road user charge.
“It would be magnificent if they dropped it. It would give so many people relief and it would mean our costs would come down. It might also mean that consumers can actually afford to buy something.”
If you are a member and would like to share the story of how you are managing your business during this time of fuel price spikes and supply uncertainty with NatRoad, contact us on 1800 272 144.
