Hauliers raise prices amid soaring fuel costs

"We can't push those prices on to our customers, we'd just be pushed out."

For Jonathon Clifft, rising fuel prices are forcing his waste management firm into difficult decisions.

The business operates three vehicles across the West Midlands and Clifft said fuel "has become a strain". "We'll probably have to lose a vehicle," he said, if the price hikes were to continue.

Clifft's story echoes millions of motorists and businesses across the country facing rising costs at the pump as UK diesel prices top £2 a litre for first time, according to the RAC.

He told the BBC fuel is fundamental part of his business, but the firm is having to absorb the rising costs.

And the cost of operating his own vehicles isn't the only challenge.

Clifft said: "It's approximately a rise of £100 to £120 a week. We're being hit both ends because of our disposal costs.

"Where we tip off our waste, their machinery costs are increasing due to the fuel, so we're being hit both sides."

He is not alone.

Forty miles away in Worcester, haulage operator Lewis Pinches said rising fuel costs had reshaped business decisions.

He said: "It's just horrendous, to be honest. It's a vicious cycle with the fuel. Once that goes up, everything goes up."

Pinches said filling one of his articulated lorries now costs between £600 and £700.

He said: "Sometimes if we're doing big distance and heavy work, we can be doing a tank a day.

"We've already seen it this year where we've had to let one or two people go, we couldn't give them the hours they needed."

Diesel prices have climbed to a record average of 200.01p a litre, according to the RAC, while petrol has also risen to 174.71p a litre.

The motoring organisation said the increases were "showing no signs of slowing", as disruption to global oil supplies linked to the conflict in Iran continues to push up wholesale fuel costs.

Elsewhere, in Shropshire, for some in the haulage sector, the concern is not about profits, but survival.

Charlotte Gregory, a partner at haulage firm JR Gregory & Sons near Shrewsbury, said the industry was reaching a breaking point.

"Small fluctuations you absorb as a business. That's what we've been doing for the last 50-odd years. But when you're seeing fluctuations like this..."

The company is now spending more than £1,000 extra on fuel every week compared with the beginning of the year, she said.

Like many hauliers, the business has little choice but to pass on some of those costs.

"Whatever industry you're in, whatever type of supply chain you're in with haulage, it will always impact the consumer at the end of it. Once our prices go up, that's when things start to spiral."

Gregory said the sector urgently needed support.

"We need some relief. It's desperation in the industry at the moment. Companies are going bump left, right and centre.

"It's been a downhill spiral for the last few years in haulage really, and this is the final nail in the coffin for a lot of hauliers."

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