The surcharge could rise further to around 24-25 per cent if fuel costs continue to go up, Mr Bulmer said.
The freight forwarder’s logistics partners in Poland, Czech Republic, Western Europe and the UK have cautioned that their trucking costs will rise due to a shortage of drivers (many of whom are Ukrainian and have been returning to Ukraine) as well as higher diesel costs.
Big trucking companies like Toll and Linfox that haul groceries for supermarket chains have declined to comment on the level of their fuel surcharges but a small NSW trucking group, Alliance Transport, told customers that its fuel levy would rise to 18.5 per cent on March 21.
“Over the last four weeks fuel prices have increased significantly and appear to continue rising day by day,” Alliance Transport told customers on Monday.
Jackson Meyer, chief executive of freight forwarder Verus Global, said higher transport costs were ultimately passed on to consumers.
“Reports already being made from customers that they have had to increase their selling costs to their customers, ultimately leading to increased shelf item costs to consumers,” Mr Meyer said.
While ocean freight rates had eased slightly, strong demand for goods was expected to push shipping rates higher again, Mr Meyer said.
Neil Chambers, director of Container Transport Alliance Australia, said fuel was typically 17-20 per cent of the operating cost for metropolitan and intrastate trucking companies, and up to 30 per cent of operating costs for long distance linehaul companies.
“A rule of thumb is that for every 5 cents’ increase in diesel price, container transport companies add 1 per cent to their fuel surcharge to customers,” Mr Chambers said.
Many container transport companies had fuel surcharge rates of between 13-16 per cent before the Ukraine invasion, but with the recent sharp rises in diesel and petrol prices, most container transport companies will be raising surcharges to 21-24 per cent, he said.
“Clearly, this gets passed through to the cost of the goods and commodities (import and export), which will fuel inflation,” Mr Chambers said.
Steve Shearer, executive officer of the South Australian Road Transport Association, said the industry group had warned the competition watchdog to monitor whether big trucking companies passed on the extra money received from fuel surcharges quickly (within at least 30 days) to their smaller sub-contractors.
“It is the sub-contractor buying the fuel,” Mr Shearer said. The low Australian dollar relative to the US dollar had increased the pain of higher fuel prices compared with the previous record price spike in 2008, he said.
“There is not a single truck operator in the country who can afford to absorb the fuel prices increase, it doesn’t matter how big or small they are – they all have to pass it on.”
