The ATA has revealed the impact its contract plan would have on being able to set a mandatory fuel levy formula for Australian operators
Last week, the Australian Trucking Association (ATA) travelled to Canberra to present its plan for fair trucking industry contracts.
ATA CEO Mat Munro went to Parliament House to discuss with senators the plan, meeting with Senator Tony Sheldon, Senator Glenn Sterle and Transport Workers’ Union (TWU) national secretary Michael Kaine alongside Senator Tammy Tyrrell.
The meeting came as ATA Chair David Smith says the contract plan would enable the Fair Work Commission to set a mandatory fuel levy formula.
“Under our plan, the commission would be able to make orders setting road transport contract standards, including a mandatory formula for setting and adjusting fuel levies,” Smith says.
“The commission should not be able to set a percentage fuel levy rate because the inputs to any formula would vary from business to business.”
Smith says the fuel levy formula would need to factor in changes to the federal government’s road user charge.
“Some rate review clauses in industry contracts are based on the price of fuel, but changes to the road user charge don’t affect the fuel price – they change the fuel tax credits that trucking businesses can claim on their monthly or quarterly BAS,” Smith says.
“The federal governments has just increased the road user charge from 27.2 cents per litre to 28.8 cents per litre, and it will go up another 3.6 cents per litre over the next two years.
“Any fuel levy formula needs to take these increases into account.”
ATA research shows that only 34 per cent of trucking businesses are able to pass on increases in their fuel costs, including as a result of changes in their fuel tax credits.