Extra shifts, driving slower: How NSW is reacting to fuel price pain

As prices at the bowser increase, so have the number of casual shifts single mum and massage therapist Kari Larssen needs to pick up to make ends meet.

“I’ve had to morph into a cleaner, to a support worker, to a massage therapist, and I’m on the hunt for more part-time work,” Larssen said. “I don’t have disposable income for my daughter and I to go out anywhere.”

For Larssen, driving is crucial to get her to and from school pick-ups and the massage clinic, and for taking patients to appointments as a support worker. Catching public transport is not an option: her massage board, among her other equipment, weighs at least 15 kilograms, which means every litre of petrol counts.

The Cronulla mum isn’t alone. School camps are under threat, holidays are being cancelled and tradies are hiking their prices as the soaring cost of fuel hits the hip pockets of NSW families.

The Herald previously reported regional caravan parks were experiencing cancellations in a usually busy time. Larssen said even having a holiday plan to abandon was foreign to her.

“It’s that single parent income … I’m so strapped for money I don’t consider looking forward into the future. It’s disappointing for me to tell my daughter that, and it’s even more heartbreaking for me to see my daughter upset at the fact that we don’t have the money to go on holiday,” she said.

Transport companies are having to increase their fees to cover the price of fuel, which has put the outdoor recreation industry on high alert.

Great Aussie Bush Camp CEO Graham Ward said it had already had some cancellations for its children’s outdoor education camps, and the phone was ringing off the hook with anxious schools checking his cancellation policy.

“We’re concerned about kids missing out,” Ward said. “Social pressures, disconnecting from screens … camps build resilience, an appreciation for the outdoors.”

The Outdoor Council of Australia, the industry body for camps and adventure tourism operators, conducted a snap survey of members and found 21 per cent had experienced cancellations since the beginning of the fuel price increases.

The impact is largely from increased transport costs. Most school camps in rural and regional areas depend on buses to transport students from Sydney.

Livestock transporter Andrew Poole has had no choice but to pass on a fuel levy to farmers to take their cattle to the Dubbo saleyards. Even so, it’s not enough to cover the increase in costs.

“We’re being more vigilant with tyre pressure, leaving half an hour earlier and driving a little steadier rather than racing down the highway,” Poole said.

“Little things we can do as a business to increase our fuel efficiency.”

Ride-share operators Uber and Didi have both increased their prices this month and tradies are now facing tough choices about how much of the pain to pass on to customers.

The cost of PVC piping, which is made with oil, has increased by 33 per cent, according to the Master Builders Association.

With the cost of that crucial material skyrocketing and the price of diesel well over $3 a litre, Central Coast plumber Dave Blunt has decided to stop accepting any jobs requiring travel to Sydney. Before the war in the Middle East, Sydney trips made up half of all jobs, he said.

Blunt is debating whether to introduce a fuel surcharge or simply to put up his hourly rate to cover the expenses.

“I’ve got customers moving forward with projects now and I can’t give a fixed price for the job. I can’t guarantee the material costs,” he said.

Elsewhere in Australia, diesel is selling for much more. At the Orchid Beach Trading Post and Driftwood Bar in K’gari, off the coast of south-east Queensland, diesel was more than $4 a litre. In a social media post, the independent petrol station pointed to getting “smashed by suppliers” and having to run off-grid on generator power as reasons for the steep price.

On Friday, there were 59 service stations without any fuel in NSW, and 207 were out of diesel.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey said consumers and businesses should brace for more short-term inflation, telling the TechWest Infrastructure Summit on Friday that the oil shock was “bigger than the 1970s”.

Mookhey urged people to only “buy what they need”.

“You don’t want it to come at the expense of your neighbours,” he said.

The state government is waiting for fuel companies to provide crucial information about fuel supply, distribution and orders, which will inform how it plans for any shortages in the coming weeks.

“This is the start of a more intensive monitoring phase that we are going into as we continue to see the effects of the Persian Gulf War on domestic supply,” Mookhey said.

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