Freight industry to be hit hard by huge diesel price increase

DURBAN - The Road Freight Association (RFA) has said the huge hike in the price of diesel this week will hurt many businesses in the transport industry.

While petrol had a marginal decrease, the prices of diesel increased between 92c/l and 98c/l inland to between 88c/l and 94c/l for diesel at the coast.

RFA CEO Gavin Kelly said the increase in the diesel price was significant.

“It’s almost R1 a litre. There are a number of transporters who live from hand to mouth, they don’t have the luxury of contracts. They have to go out and find work, and for them this is going to be a deal breaker where they are going to say I’m now going to charge you more for every kilometre that I drive with your load, and that very well might push them out. At the end of the day you and I are going to pay more because everything is transported around the country – 88% of goods in South Africa are transported by road and truck.”

AK Neerpath, the owner of Jetrans Transport, a transport and logistics service provider, said that the rise in the diesel prices had severely affected the company.

“The price of diesel has reached unprecedented levels this year, and it is impacting us. We are struggling, the rising price of diesel is eroding our profit margins. We really can’t see any respite that will assist us.”

South African National Taxi Council spokesperson Sifiso Shangase said that while there had been a slight decrease in the price of petrol, this brought little relief.

“There have been so many increases in the fuel price over the past few months.” Shangase added that taxi fares would go up in July.

“We did not just want to raise taxi fare prices when the price of fuel went up, but in July we will have to have an increment in the taxi fare price.

“We did try to delay it as long as possible. We have to try to make ends meet, and it’s only with an increase that we are able to survive as the taxi industry with the rising cost of fuel.”