With the Federal Government’s ETS bill in serious doubt, the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) has urged MPs and Senators to support the scheme and the amendments needed to get it passed.
“There is no doubt the scheme would impose billions of dollars in costs on the trucking industry, which we would have to pass on to our customers,” Trevor said.
“It would, however, be much better than the alternative: a series of ad hoc measures put in place by every level of government in response to public pressure.
“Even major facilities, such as ports and distribution centres, could be expected to develop their own, conflicting climate change plans. The Port of Long Beach Clean Trucks Program is an international example of the sort of thing that could be expected.
“These measures would impose enormous compliance and other costs on trucking operators, and experience has shown that costs like these are very difficult to pass on to our customers.
“In contrast, there would be no extra paperwork or compliance costs for small trucking operators under the CPRS. Companies would be able to make their own decisions about how to deal with the increase in the price of fuel it would cause, based on their specific circumstances.
“Some would pass the increased cost on. Others would buy more efficient trucks or use their existing fleets more efficiently. In other words, they would be free to make the best decision for their business, and you could expect that every one of Australia’s trucking businesses would make slightly different choices.
“All those individual decisions would add up to deliver the Government’s emissions target at the lowest cost to the economy, in exactly the same way the working of the market delivers other goods and services at the lowest cost,” Trevor said.
Official figures: trucking industry uses less fuel to do the job
Compared to the late 1980s, the trucking industry now uses less fuel to haul the same amount of freight the same distance, a new report from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics (ABARE) shows.
The report examines how the energy intensity of the Australian economy changed between 1989-90 and 2006-07. Energy intensity measures the amount of energy needed to deliver the same output. A reduction in energy intensity shows that an industry is becoming more efficient and productive.
“The energy intensity of all road freight has declined at an average rate of between one per cent (for light commercial vehicles and rigid trucks) and two per cent (for articulated trucks) a year over the period 1989-90 to 2006-07,” the report says.
“This partly reflects the economic incentives for the trucking industry to reduce energy use as energy costs comprise about one-third of total operating cost.
“Further processes are currently underway to progress towards nationally-consistent regulatory and operational reform across all freight modes, which is expected to continue influencing energy intensity trends in the transport sector,” it says.
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