Diesel cost for lorry up by €18 per 100km - local haulier
Farmers and lorry drivers at N4 protest say it's harder and harder to make ends meet
It costs €18 more per 100km to run a HGV now compared to just a matter of weeks ago, says a local haulier who was on the fuel price protest at the Castlepollard junction off the N4 on Saturday.
The driver was one of a number of people, hauliers and farmers, who spoke to the Westmeath Examiner, but who preferred not to be identified.
Making the point that the haulage industry works on tight margins at the best of times, the lorry driver said the increasing cost of running vehicles is the primary reason he was at the protest.
“By the time you pay the driver, the diesel, repayments on the lorry, you’re barely left with €100 a day. It’s not only the diesel – tyres have gone up, oil has gone up, servicing… it’s all the oil crisis, it’s all oil based.”
He said the four tyres on the drive axle of a typical HGV cost €3,000 and they have to be replaced every eight months, and the other tyres would be €600 and more each.
He said that if the government cut VAT on diesel, “it’s no good to the hauliers because we get the VAT back anyhow, so we need to cut the excise duties”.
A local farmer explained his situation: “Well, this year I had to order almost 100 tonnes of fertiliser. I booked it in February, and I did that the minute the war in Iran started, because the first thing that happens in any kind of international war is fuel goes up and fertiliser goes up. By doing that, I did save a lot of money – two months later, fertiliser went up €200 a tonne.
“Multiply that then by 100 tonnes, that’s an awful lot of money.”
Illustrating how incomes have stalled but prices keep rising, he said producers are “getting the same price in 2025 for grain as we were getting in 2008”.
“The price of a tractor in 2008, a top of the range 200 horsepower tractor, was about €95,000 plus the VAT. That same tractor today is €220,000 plus the VAT. The fuel is double in price and we’re getting the same price for the produce. It’s absolutely, completely unsustainable.”
He said that adding “insult to injury is that the government are profiteering off the fuel increases, because their percentage stays the same. The only thing James Geoghegan and the lads above in Dublin are looking for is a cap on the litre of fuel, where the percentage increase stops.
“They’re not looking for a complete deletion of it. To expect a government not to take tax is ludicrous and no man is illogical in any of this protest in what we’re seeking.”
He said the government, for the last 10-15 years, have been dealing with protesters of no resources – they’ve been dealing with left-wing liberals protesting about stuff in Dublin city and this, that and the other. Now they have pushed the working people of this country so far. They are poking a bear that they don’t know is sleeping.”
Turning to talk of the army being used to clear protesters’ vehicles, the farmer contended: “Under the constitution, it is actually treason to send the national army out against the people.
“And on top of which, they’re talking about bringing water cannons out – well, there are about 6,000 slurry tankers in the county of Westmeath alone, with water cannons. Where do they think they’re going? They’re sending army wreckers out to move machinery, but they’ve got about 4 army wreckers in the country. They’re pushing against an industry that has unimaginable amounts of resources, and if they want to push to that level, I think it might be a great mistake on their behalf.”
Another man who spoke to the Examiner represents part of Irish commerce that is critical but not often seen: the single vehicle trucker.
“I paid the diesel bill for March the other day. It’s over 11 now 11 grand a month now and that’s a four grand increase over the last one. Obviously, the more work you do, the more you have to pay (on fuel), but you can’t stop – you need to keep going, you’re tied both ways, what do you do? I’m a sole trader, on me own, I don’t have anyone else with me.”
The lorry the man runs has to pay for itself (the €200,000 cost is financed), pay for its trailer, for its running costs, from diesel to maintenance, and insurance to replacement parts, and for its eventual replacement. What it is barely able to pay is a wage for its driver. He said his insurance bill has increased by €3,000 in the last year.
“Nobody ever sees that,” he said, adding that the cost of ad blue has risen from €500 to €800. That lasts about two and a half months and it’s an additional cost he didn’t have to pay on his previous lorry.
He normal run is drawing grain from Dublin port back to the midlands and on top of everything else, he has to €27 per run on motorway tolls. The added expense of diesel means the cost of each run has risen by €50.
“It’s really in March that the pinch came – the problem was that nobody realised the pinch was there, because in March every lad had credit, and the next thing it comes into April and every man ha to pay his bill. You’re shoving the card in the machine getting diesel and working away, and the next thing you get the bill… it has happened across the country and there’s lots of people that don’t have two months credit. I have only a month’s credit, and I’m lucky to have it.
“I don’t take a wage out of my business, if there’s money there left, I use me little bits and pieces. That’s it. I’m self-employed. I’d be embarrassed to tell you what I take out, and it’s not that I’m not trying to be a crier about it, but do you know what I’m saying?”
Fuel rebate ‘a financial trap’
The men who spoke to the Examiner at the N4 protest on Saturday had a point to make on a fuel rebate, which they consider "a financial trap".
The lorry driver said that he had discussed it with his accountant, who assessed it would be worth about €50 to him at the end of the year after he pays related fees, and it would be a Revenue audit.
He has no concerns about an audit, but said: "It’s not worth doing it, unless you’re running a big fleet. So it’s a proper concession that’s needed, equally across the board for every industry.
“Part of the problem is you only get it back at the end of every quarter.
"These are the truths that the politicians don’t tell you. Everything is taxed and taxed and taxed," he concluded.