Essex haulage company boss calls for government support as fuel prices continue to rise
They've seen prices rise 30% in a week
The Operations Director of a haulage company in Essex has spoken out as fuel prices continue to rise, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine affects global oil prices.
Nick Saltwell, of Forest Freight in Rainham, said: "Fuel costs are a big part of our operation and impact our business quite dramatically - especially at the moment...
"They've jumped almost 30% in a week, which is completely unprecedented.
"It's meant we've had to introduce a fuel surcharge index that we've sent out to all our customers, applying a fuel surcharge onto their rates, just to cover our costs.
"It's not something we could just absorb, as the costs are so high."
The company, which has nearly 50 years experience and make more than 40,000 deliveries a year, is now calling on the government to offer some guidance and assistance: "Just a bit of assistance... would help us."
They're hoping to see a rebate on fuel introduced: "Quite a large percentage of the cost of fuel to us is made up of duties and taxes, so asking for a rebate on that would make the fuel cheaper to us, and then we could reduce the cost of the fuel surcharge for the customers."
Whilst Nick wants the help, he doesn't think it will come soon, saying it won't be easy for the government to provide the rebate: "Because the cost of fuel has dramatically increased to such high levels, it's quite difficult for them to make the real impact required for us to be able to reduce our costs accordingly."
As of Wednesday 9th March, in the UK, the average price of Diesel was 165.24 pence per litre and unleaded petrol was 158.20 pence per litre, with the RAC predicting both values would continue to rise.