Australia’s timber haulage operators — responsible for transporting critically important materials across the country — received welcome relief today, with Australia halving the excise on fuel and reducing the heavy vehicle road user charge to zero for three months, delivering the first tangible cost relief to the value chain which has until now been battered since the war in the Middle East drove diesel to record highs.
Today, Wood Central spoke to Denis Greensill, one of Australia’s largest timber haulage contractors, who said the measures had already allowed his fleet to halve the additional fuel surcharge applied to mill deliveries — from 28 per cent down to roughly 14 per cent.
Greensill, which currently has 30 and 35 trucks on the road at any one time, said the relief was welcome but cautioned that the truckers remained deep in the red. “Drivers are still — even with the relief — paying about 70 cents in the dollar more than they were before the crisis in the Middle East,” he said.
He added that access to precious diesel has improved markedly (for now) since the Big Four cut supply to independents, with Greensill telling Wood Central the situation had turned. “The Independents are putting fuel back in our tanks, which is a much better situation than a week or so ago when we couldn’t get fuel from the Independents at all,” he said. Pressed on what the surcharge reduction means in practice, Greensill put a number on it. “With the new changes, it means that we can now cut the additional fuel costs to mills from 28 per cent to 14 per cent.”
As it stands, Greensill’s fleet consumes upwards of 50,000 litres every week — with the Middle East-driven price surge adding as much as $70,000 per week, or $280,000 per month, to its operating costs. The excise cut halves the standard rate from 52.6 cents per litre to 26.3 cents per litre through to 30 June, with the government separately abolishing the 32.4 cents per litre heavy vehicle road user charge for trucks over 4.5 tonnes gross vehicle mass for the same three-month window. The savings are not expected to reach bowser prices for up to two weeks, as fuel already in service station tanks was taxed at the higher rate prior to today.
It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered a rare national address tonight — broadcast simultaneously across all television and radio networks, a format not used since the COVID-19 pandemic — warning Australians the crisis was far from resolved. “The reality is, the economic shocks caused by this war will be with us for months,” Albanese told the nation. “The months ahead may not be easy. I want to be upfront about that. No government can promise to eliminate the pressures that this war is causing. I can promise we will do everything we can to protect Australia from the worst of it,” he said.
Please note: This story is part of a special Wood Central series covering the fuel crisis in regional and rural communities and its impact on Australia’s $23 billion forest products value chain. For more information, click here for Wood Central’s exclusive story with Anthony Dorney, who had to sell his cattle to pay his fuel bill.
