Frank Black is back on the road after two weeks out of work when he spots a sign, a little too far from where he’s standing to make out clearly.
“Is that $2.08 for diesel?” he says. “I’ve gotta check that price out. If that’s right I’m gonna fill up!”
It’s not. Diesel hasn’t been that close to $2 since before the war in Iran. Black won’t be filling up here. He climbs back into his truck, rumbles it to life and continues on his journey.
The 40-year-old trucking veteran has been caught up in the global fuel crisis triggered by the war. Like other truck drivers, he relies on diesel – and lots of it. Prices rose from about $1.80 a litre to a peak of about $3.20 in April.
As an owner-driver, Black goes by the rule of thumb that one-third of a job’s pay should go to fuel, one-third to truck maintenance and the remaining third to wages.
But when diesel prices surged, the numbers stopped adding up, forcing him to “park’ his truck for more than two weeks – it just wasn’t worth going to work.
Even without a fuel crisis, “we work on slim margins anyway”, Black says, “so the slightest volatility in fuel or any costs is going to put pressure on small operators”.
The war in Iran has been “the final nail in the coffin for a lot of people”.
‘The house is on the line’
Black is on his third week on the road. After carting mining equipment through the outback from South Australia to Queensland, he made his way down the east coast, picking up jobs as he went. I join him as he drives north again from Sydney to Brisbane, a truckload of stage equipment in tow.
“After that, I’ll see what happens,” Black says. “It’s part of the deal being an owner-driver like I am … I go everywhere and anywhere.”
The sun fades and the lights of passing cars and trucks rush by as we tumble down the two-lane highway towards Narrabri in northern New South Wales. The radio crackles as we pass out of range of a local station.
Black says for long-haul owner-drivers the baseline cost of keeping a truck on the road is staggeringly high, reaching between $100,000 and $200,000 a year before fuel costs.
Once fuel is added, the costs climb even further. He says long-haul drivers average up to 200,000km a year, pushing total operating costs well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The outgoings can consume much of drivers’ gross income before they pay themselves a wage. Delayed payment terms of 30, 90 or 120 days compound financial pressures.
“The road freight transport industry is characterised by low profits and growing rates of insolvency,” says David Peetz, a professor at Griffith University who researches work and labour markets.
If a driver is “not able to recoup [their costs] … then they’ll either go bankrupt or they’ll just stop driving”.
Black says he’s worried about young drivers getting caught up in the system: “The house is on the line because you’ve put it up against the truck, so if you default payments on the truck you could end up losing the house … it’s a trap.”
Richard Olsen, the NSW state secretary of the Transport Workers’ Union, says drivers have little bargaining power against prices set by large clients – citing “oil companies” and the supermarkets Aldi, Coles and Woolworths.
“How does an owner-driver living in Wagga stand up and negotiate with the companies at the big end of town?” he asks.
The union secured a temporary Fair Work order in April forcing clients to pay fuel surcharges while prices exceed $2 a litre, with the deal to be reviewed in late July. Olsen says more permanent regulations are needed to stop drivers from cutting corners to stay afloat.
“There’s been inquiry after inquiry in the transport industry … about the relationship between wages earned and safety on our roads,” he says.
“Truck drivers have to make a decision on the money they earn. Do you pay your bills? Do you feed your families? Or do you do your maintenance on the vehicle? And the first thing to go is maintenance.”
Black pulls into a small roadhouse where he will park for the night, with showers, a laundry and a simple restaurant where two men sit quietly, eating dinner beneath a glowing television mounted on the wall.
‘It puts pressure on the family system’
Long-haul drivers spend long periods away from home, bouncing around the country and sleeping in their trucks, parked at roadhouses like this one or on the roadside if they’re tired or have reached their maximum driving hours for the day. Most vehicles are kitted out with a cabin behind the seats that has a small bed and can be modified to include a microwave, fridge and even a television.
“It almost feels like a little campervan in here, you know, when I pull up and draw the curtains,” Black says. “It’s a nice cosy little spot.”
But being away from home can take its toll and family breakdown is common. He blames his work for the breakdown of his marriage. “It’s just the fact that you’re always away,” he says.
A lot of younger people see trucking as a way to “get ahead”, he says. “When they come home and they haven’t made what they thought they were going to make, eventually it puts pressure on the family system.
“Unfortunately, divorce rates and actually suicide rates in our industry are very high.”
Olsen highlights the prevalence of mental health struggles among drivers, something the industry is making efforts to address.
“You’re powerless to do anything about what’s going on at home,” he says. “You’re powerless to negotiate your rates of pay. You’ve got another 1,500km to go and you’re alone.”
Olsen says the industry needs a cost-recovery model that comes from the top of the chain and takes into account all outgoings, as well as a permanent fuel levy regulated into law.
“We’ve got to create a system that allows [the driver] to have bargaining power,” he says. “And have set into stone … formulas that allow for … a margin for profit.”
At first light, the roadhouse is peaceful: rows of trucks sit idling, their drivers asleep inside, as small birds dart between the fuel pumps. I catch up with Black for a morning coffee before the drive into Brisbane.
“People forget that during the life of most products they get carted by road,” he says. “It didn’t magically just appear … people work through the night and work long hours to get them products there.”
Black says he enjoys the work – the travel, seeing new places, the freedom. But he worries that, without permanent solutions, many drivers will be forced out of business.
“I started trucking with the hope of giving myself and my family a better life but I soon found out that it wasn’t that easy,” he says.
“If I had my time again, I wouldn’t have done it … It was too big an expense as far as personal life goes. And even dollar value … It’s just not worth it.”
• In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
