ALL NZ cities girdlocked

[immortality]

NZ truck drivers have had enough after the government increased Road USer CHarges for all diesel vehicles. this is on top of all the recent fuel price hikes and the increase of car/truck registrations and increases in ACC (accident compensation) levies as well. there is also another 10 cent/ltr petrol tax coming in Auckland before the end of the year

this morning truck drivers have taken to all major motorways and CBD's and have bought traffic to a stand still. the "people" have had enough and have finally grown some balls and made a stand against government policy

[Dayvo]

They are supposed to be doing the same thing here starting on the 28 July for 2 weeks

[TVR-190]

Thisll probly happen in sydney also, and cityrail will probably fail the same day

[Grennan]

Yeah i think people here are regretting voting for Rudd here in Australia as he has been talking about new policies that are going to raise petrol costs here. I think it was this week truckies in Sydney drove slow along the motorways... seriously all they are doing is ****ing everyone off, maybe they could all park around parliament house or something block off the entry/exit points, park in Kruddys driveway.

[STEALTHY™]

Yeah i think people here are regretting voting for Rudd here in Australia as he has been talking about new policies that are going to raise petrol costs here. I think it was this week truckies in Sydney drove slow along the motorways... seriously all they are doing is ****ing everyone off, maybe they could all park around parliament house or something block off the entry/exit points, park in Kruddys driveway.

Parking out the front of parliament wont get the message across.

Pretty sure they did this a few weeks back in another country (can't remember it now) but i don't know what the outcome was.

[Emackulation]

Go for gold fellas is all I can say. Hope you fudge em up good.

[CSP]

Time to buy me one of these...

[Shounak]

Main Force Patrol FTW

[commsirac]

NZ truck drivers have had enough after the government increased Road USer CHarges for all diesel vehicles. this is on top of all the recent fuel price hikes and the increase of car/truck registrations and increases in ACC (accident compensation) levies as well. there is also another 10 cent/ltr petrol tax coming in Auckland before the end of the year

this morning truck drivers have taken to all major motorways and CBD's and have bought traffic to a stand still. the "people" have had enough and have finally grown some balls and made a stand against government policy

Isnt their frustration more to do with the world price of oil? which the government really cant do much about?

Really, the truckies need to grow some brains rather than extra balls! Really is a problem when such simpletons are allowed to drive these dangerous and large rigs causing public havoc.

Why dont they simply put their prices up. People wont pay to get things delivered by truck? really, what are they going to eat and buy?
But where will public they get the extra cash to pay? wont the extra fuel taxes/charges reduce costs/taxes in other areas eventually finding more money in people's pockets to help absorb some of the impact, but in reality the world price of oil going up is not a cost that can be subsidised or hidden from....we are all affected.

[commsirac]

double post

[commsirac]

Im sure there are many truckies out there that are more intelligent than you, or me, or anyone else on this forum... Im sure they understand the situation but it's really a venting of their frustration than anything else.

.

If they understood the situation they wouldnt be doing what they are doing. They would realise that it is responsible action by the government. Perhaps if they were listening to someone like Professor Gaurnat right atm(address to national press club)(they can get it off the website) they would have more insight on the matter.
I couldnt care less about any truckies who are offended. Blocking public roads is just the action of thugs/bullies, possibly authorities are too reluctant to prosecute as these morons will do something even more stupid in retaliation.

[TVR-190]

[FusionX]

It is rather obvious that commsirac doesn't understand the transport industry.

If it was as easy as putting up rates to go with the price of diesel, don't you think we would have done that?? Don't talk about **** you don't know about.

[MasterOfReality]

Professor Garnaut.

What a crock of **** this ETS thing is.

Some government official in Europe somewhere realised that if they talk up global warming, then they can justify to the people extra tax, hence make a ****load of money out of it. It is nothing more than a huge money making exercise and if you are a scientist you would do well to hop on the global warming gravy train, and by what I have been reading on the ABC website, its going to be the high income earners yet again be expected to wear the cost.

Another useless idea from Labor, especially when at the end of the day Australia's contribution to the world scale is miniscule.

Rant over.

[commsirac]

It is rather obvious that commsirac doesn't understand the transport industry.

If it was as easy as putting up rates to go with the price of diesel, don't you think we would have done that?? Don't talk about **** you don't know about.

Better explain it to me!

Yeh, I know there are some transport companies that sign contracts to deliver x amount at y cost for the next year etc........but isnt that their own stupidity for doing that when they have costs that can never be assumed to be set in stone. (next time I do something stupid I wont be blocking public roads in fustration!)

[CSP]

next time I do something stupid I wont be blocking public roads in fustration!

No - you'll be clicking on "Submit Reply" and it will be the rest of us that end up frustrated.

[commsirac]

Wow, thats 3 personal attacks in short succession CSP.
If you have something intelligent to contribute to the thread, please post, but if you want to get your jollies by these methods, perhaps go and find a proper sandpit to play in.

[FusionX]

The problem is not so much with the Government, but they can certainly help out.

You can put all the prices up, then you get some other company come through and undercut you. You might say that to do that, they must be doing something smarter/better/cheaper to be able to. Thing is they aren't. They are taking the losses and racking up big debts. Saw this last year with a transport company, left over 12 million in debt (had been doing this for 2 years). A couple of companys have done this in the past, but when tenders and that are offered people always go with the cheapest.

The Government could do something to help out, as of the 1st of July all off-road machinery (anything working in quarrys/construction site) of ours gets a 20 cent a litre rebate on diesel. Why not extend that to truck owners?

While what they did probably wasn't the best of ideas and there are other things that could of been thought of. It needed to be bought to light truck owners are doing it tough at the moment. Of what profit margins there were have virtually dissappeared. Its not just diesel costs but over the coming years more traffic on the road, extra sets of traffic lights, everythings now takes longer.

If that makes any sense i'm doing well.... up for over 24 hours now.

[jules]

The Government could do something to help out, as of the 1st of July all off-road machinery (anything working in quarrys/construction site) of ours gets a 20 cent a litre rebate on diesel. Why not extend that to truck owners?

in fact they do all get it.

it's funny, truckers are one of the only road transport users who are immune to fuel price increases - they should just pass it on to their customers.

you won't see Lindsay Fox going broke, or losing any money over higher fuel prices. but then he didn't sign any long term contracts locking him into a price with his customers.

sadly, a lot of ma and pa companies just aren't as smart as Lindsay Fox.

trucking is a low barrier to entry industry, like taxi driving and fish and chip shop owners. other than the really cunning operators, they will always do it tough.

[FusionX]

Alot of truck drivers don't set the rates they get paid. They just go work for a company and get paid per tonne they cart or per km they travel.

Immune from fuel price increases? since when?

[jules]

in a free market economy, anyone is free to negotiate prices on anything - other than if you've previously signed a contract specifying price.

what you mean is, the consignor won't budge on price. again, a feature of any low barrier to entry industry is high competition.

try telling a lawyer (an industry where competition is low) you'll only pay him $15 an hour and you won't budge on price. he'll laugh and walk away. and so will any other lawyer you ask.

sadly for truckers, there are too many desperate other truckers who will accept the low pay. that spoils it for everyone. it's not fuel prices that are the problem.

[FusionX]

sadly for truckers, there are too many desperate other truckers who will accept the low pay. that spoils it for everyone. it's not fuel prices that are the problem.

Agreed in part, but fuel prices have increased this problem, as in the last 6 months, the average fuel bill for a semi has gone up around $2000 per month. While rates need to go up to help out, as you said, its the people working for little money/undercut others that **** it all up.

[immortality]

Isnt their frustration more to do with the world price of oil? which the government really cant do much about?

Really, the truckies need to grow some brains rather than extra balls! Really is a problem when such simpletons are allowed to drive these dangerous and large rigs causing public havoc.

Why dont they simply put their prices up. People wont pay to get things delivered by truck? really, what are they going to eat and buy?
But where will public they get the extra cash to pay? wont the extra fuel taxes/charges reduce costs/taxes in other areas eventually finding more money in people's pockets to help absorb some of the impact, but in reality the world price of oil going up is not a cost that can be subsidised or hidden from....we are all affected.

i think you missed the point of my original post. the truckies are complaining about the government drastically increasing the price of road use charges. this is a extra cost on top of the cost of diesel. i don't know how it works in aussie but here when you run a petrol powered vehicle your road use charges are incorperated into the cost of petrol. diesel vehicles on the other hand purchase diesel and then have to purchase extra RUC (road user charges) on top of that from the government. the large the vehicle to greater the charge per km (and you have to purchase in advance). the government annouced the increase on tuesday and enforced em on wednesday.

diesel prices in NZ have increased atleast 30% more then petrol. one trucking company owner with a fleet of 25 vehicles says his costs from this increase is over the 100k mark (p/a) so it's not a little increase. the real problem here is that the government has been it talks with the heavy road users forum for some time and have just sprung this increase on em. when the ministers own modeling shows that heavy vehicles already pay more then there fair share of roading costs.

there has been overwhelming support for the truckies today from the general public.

at the end of the day almost every product you purchase is delivered by some sort of heavy vehicle so the consumer will end up paying for this increase. this is possibly the reason why the general public is behind this protest. this is also the fist time in recent NZ history that amajor group like this has protested in such a manner with there dislike of government policy. it's good to see the people standing up to be counted instead of bending over and taking it from the government as usual.

politicians rated as the 2nd least favourable people in a recent survey, are you a politician commsirac?

[commsirac]

i think you missed the point of my original post. the truckies are complaining about the government drastically increasing the price of road use charges. this is a extra cost on top of the cost of diesel. i don't know how it works in aussie but here when you run a petrol powered vehicle your road use charges are incorperated into the cost of petrol. diesel vehicles on the other hand purchase diesel and then have to purchase extra RUC (road user charges) on top of that from the government. the large the vehicle to greater the charge per km (and you have to purchase in advance). ?

No, I took in the point about the road usage charges.
Seems a good system to me, trucks should be billed on the road usage as well rather than just linking that to diesel, as not all diesel users cause road damage. You have reports that they are already paying their fair share, I seriously doubt whether that is the case.

How so?

As most people know the cost of making a road and damage that occurs to road varies exponentially with the axle loads of the vehicles using them.
The relationship is basically a fourth power one. Double the axle load and the potential damage to the road increases by 2^4 = 16.
Basically your 40 tonne truck with 5 axles, 8tonne/axle does 13000 times more damage to the road surface than a car at 0.75tonnes/axle.(if you can believe the maths)
Basically road damage on roads that dont see trucks is rare.

Heavy vehicles should be paying exponentially more, atm, they are not as the fuel use doesnt vary exponentially with load, in fact trucks become more efficient as the size of the truck increases. (efficiency in this case: measured in fuel used/tonne).
The costs also vary exponentially with constructing new roads, bridges etc.

Whether the plight of the truckie is given sympathy by the public means nothing. Are they aware of the real cost of the trucks?
Sure the consumer ends up paying for the increase, but where does it go, down some government toilet? No, it goes back into the government money pool to be redistributed as it sees fit. Instead of the large cost of maintaining roads being financed by everyone out of their paye tax, it comes from the actual users, consequently there have to be some measures in which the government can cut costs to the public......I think I mentioned this all b4, perhaps go and read my first post in the thread again. Putting the costs where it occurs will encourage much better new systems of operation, perhaps more freight will be diverted to rail, perhaps people will buy more locally etc, rather than every tax payer in the country subsidising trucking madness.

[minux]

Basically road damage on roads that dont see trucks is rare.

Wow, can you show me examples of this, the last design engineer I spoke with wished it was only heavy vehicles using roads as then there would be less road damage.

Quite obvious you haven't driven on some of the best roads in Australia...the ones that see very few cars.