Leading Queensland transport bosses have added their voices to escalating industry calls for freight subsidy support after the crippling Queensland floods.
Blenners Transport’s Roger Blennerhassett said the extra costs incurred by operators while their fleets were grounded – or forced to take lengthy detours – have been unprecedented.
He joined several prominent colleagues in urging state and federal governments to step up and help ease the burden.
“The trucks have done one leg on a four-leg journey – the figures are just ridiculous,” said Brisbane-based Blennerhassett who overseas one of Queensland’s biggest fleets.
“That’s 2000km in a week when they should have done 6000-8000km.”
In anticipation of freight assistance being announced soon, Blennerhassett and his finance team were busy quantifying what that means to the bottom line when Big Rigs called.
But he didn’t bat an eyelid at the Queensland Trucking Association’s estimate of $100,000 a day losses for the bigger fleets such as Blenners which runs 110 linehaul combinations.
“Mid-way through the first week, into the second, we had 80 per cent of our whole fleet stuck up in North Queensland, resulting in limited equipment down south to service our Brisbane-Sydney-Melbourne-Adelaide-Perth clients.
“We’ve got major contracted customers down south with return loads, but we had limited trucks down there.
“We were also running multiple trucks from Townsville to Brisbane empty each day to ensure we had equipment in Brisbane to service customers with return loads to North Queensland. We did our best to service flood-ravaged communities but impassable highways made it impossible to get food on the shelves.”
Blennerhassett said there are many flow-on cost ramifications that politicians need to be made aware of, from the extra wear and tear on trucks forced to take detours on poorly maintained western roads, to fuel costs, wages and rego expenses on parked up equipment.
“We have a longer route and that costs us more on everything – wages, fuel, maintenance – but also because we have to fuel up at Emerald, Clermont and Charters Towers and their base price is a whole lot dearer than fuelling at Brisbane, Mackay, Townsville on the coast.”
Blennerhassett said it’s the transport companies that then must shoulder the brunt of that increased cost.
“We did a small surcharge for the detours, but it was only a portion of the cost. If we did it at cost, we would have had everyone screaming at us.
“We looked at it, but said we can’t do it. We’ll lose freight; people will go elsewhere.
“We need grants for what it’s cost us all.”
SPAR Babinda gave a big shout out to their heroes Blenners Transport for keeping deliveries coming. Image: SPAR BabindaIn addition to subsidy assistant, Blennerhassett said the authorities also need to get moving on fixing the flood-prone zones of the Bruce.
“They all know where these sections are that flood north of Mackay every year,” said Blennerhassett.
Blennerhassett said a prime example is the infamous, flood-ravaged, S-bend section of the Bruce at Ingham.
“It’s had new bitumen put over the top of it, but the design has been like that for 50 years.
“At Seymour, just past there, they upgraded that about 10 years ago, but they did half a job. They didn’t put enough pipe work underneath it so now it’s like a dam.
“The water still comes up over the road. It flooded and the road was blocked only 12 months after they did it.”
Blennerhassett said the Inland Freight Route has potential to take the pressure off the Bruce but it still needs work.
“We’d probably send more equipment out there but because of the undulations and collapsed pavement, there’s too much wear-and-tear on our vehicles.
“It also needs to be more accommodating to PBS and higher tonnage, which equals less equipment on the road.”
Dave Morgan, owner-director of Townsville-based Morgan Transport Group, didn’t want to reveal the exact hit the company took while the 76-truck fleet wasn’t operating at full strength.
“But I know that April is going to be scary for us with cash flow. The only thing we didn’t do was burn fuel but we’re still making payments, paying rego on a road we couldn’t use,” said Morgan, whose company services the “three blue-chips”, Woolworths, Tip Top and Bega.
“We’re still paying wages, supers, insurances… the costs just escalate, and you had 11 days of no return.”
Morgan said he’s been running trucks in the region since 1994 and the recent floods caused the biggest supply chain disruptions he’s seen from Mackay through to Cairns and even out toward Mt Isa.
“Everything stopped at once – it’s never happened before. We’ve always had pockets we could get to.”
Morgan also called for more concentration on long-term infrastructure investment to prevent it happening again.
“The infrastructure just hasn’t kept up with the people growth, and I think that’s a shortfall on the government. I’m a realist and know you can’t flood-proof everything, but if we prepared for the worst, and it wasn’t as bad, at least we’d get by.”
At present, a frustrated Morgan said there are just too many problem areas that keep flooding every year.
“We either get stuck at Gairloch, or Seymour River, or Murray River, or the other side of Innisfail, or the alternate routes are not up to scratch.
“There are just pinch points everywhere you turn, like at the Goorganga Plains down at Proserpine.”
Brisbane-based OzWide General Manager Michael Miller agreed that the freight industry should be compensated for the extra costs incurred during the floods.
“They’ve got to start thinking about the supply chain industry. We took a big hit, and it’s not just OzWide, it’s every logistics business that hauls freight north,” said Miller who estimates the floods have cost his company in the region of $250,000.
Ozwide was also under pressure to deliver urgent medical supplies into the flood-stricken north.
“We were forced to send a truck knowing he was going to be stuck on the side of the road, but we knew we had to get that there as soon as we possibly could.”
Miller said that’s the hidden cost that no one talks about – the mental health of the truckies who were stranded.
“Everyone forgets about the drivers. They were the ones stuck on the side of the road and couldn’t get access to essential services.”
“It was just a matter of our linehaul manager Brendon Edwards communicating with the drivers, trying to keep them upbeat and giving them a bit of hope.
Miller also implored the governments to fix the source of the problem.
“That Bruce Highway, fair-dinkum, it’s just a bloody goat-track,” Miller said.
“The whole system up there needs an overhaul. They need to replicate the Pacific Highway up in North Queensland – that’s just a brilliant highway.”
“The Bruce Highway is a dangerous road. Between Rocky and Mackay, that is the worst bit of road I’ve seen anywhere.”
Queensland Trucking Association (QTA) CEO Gary Mahon said many fleets were continuing to face significant challenges, including trucks being stranded due to inaccessible routes, incurring additional costs related to extended travel distances, and unprecedented delays.
“The delays waiting for roads to open, translate to wages paid out and increased fuel and maintenance costs with no return,” Mahon said.
With the unpredictable nature of road access during floods, freight operators often have to reroute deliveries, resulting in longer distances, increased fuel consumption, and associated costs that are not currently supported with any existing funding measures, Mahon added.
“Business in the road freight sector deliver time and time again in natural disasters and expected to just absorb the losses and experience significant financial stress. Supporting the industry with funding subsidies would contribute in some way for their commitment to ensure that communities are supplied with food and products to survive.”
Mahon said providing financial support to the road freight transport businesses will not only ease financial stress but will also facilitate the restoration of supply chains needed to support primary producers and small businesses throughout the state.
“The QTA calls on the government to recognise the critical role of road freight in responding to this flood crisis in North Queensland.
“By including road freight in disaster assistance programs, the government will demonstrate its commitment to supporting all facets of the economy during this trying time.”
Mahon told Big Rigs that the QTA formerly made a submission for assistance to both the state and federal emergency management ministers on February 18.
The association also armed a number of backbenchers, including main supporter, Leichardt federal MP Warren Entsch, with the relevant information so they could write to the state premier and prime minister to lobby their case for industry help.
“Our big push is to try and bring forward as much money as we can to try and get the critical areas of the Bruce worked on sooner than later,” Mahon said.
“This event has also shown critical this road is. We had a circumstance there for three days where Townsville was cut off, north, south and west.
“Far North Queensland was also cut off with all three routes we would use.”
Mahon said operators are used to weather events in Queensland, but this latest one “has really hurt them”.
“It’s 10 days of sustained pressure. You’ve got capital equipment that can’t be utilised because you’re basically loaded and ready to go for up north so you can’t take it south.”
Mahon said the losses range from $10,000 to $100,000 a day.
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