Couriers and taxi firms consider petrol surcharges

Skyrocketing petrol prices may lead couriers, taxi operators and tour companies to raise their prices.

Three oil companies raised petrol prices on Tuesday by another 2 cents a litre, pushing fuel prices to their highest point.

Unleaded 91 has hit nearly $1.40 a litre, and international petrol prices hover around US$60 ($87.92) a barrel.

The rise is expected to affect the cost of transportation and of goods more generally, as increased freight costs get passed on.

New Zealand Post said it was considering putting a fuel surcharge on courier services.

Spokeswoman Suzanne Carter said costs were hitting the business hard.

"Costs are increasing and we are considering a petrol surcharge," she said this morning.

However, only courier services were likely to be affected -- the price of stamps was not under review, she said.

Tourism operators were also feeling the pinch.

Hammonds Coaches manager Wally Hammond, who operates sightseeing tours in the Wellington region, said his company was already having to raise its prices for 2006, as the brochures needed to be distributed now.

"It's going to be very, very difficult," he said. "And the Government doesn't have any interest in stepping in because they are getting more and more taxes -- it's a bloody big rip off."

One Wellington taxi company manager, whose business employs 50 people, said the fuel hike, combined with poor governance, had "bankrupted" the industry.

However, Ian Gaskin of Gold and Black Taxis said the company would try not to pass on costs to customers.

"We can't afford to or we'd lose customers. Every household in the country has had the same dramatic increase in overheads -- there's no sense in raising our charges if our customers can't afford to pay them."

The taxi market was in a glut, with 2000 operators in Wellington alone, and the whole industry was "poorly administrated", he said.

He pointed to a recent critical Land Transport Safety Authority report which highlighted 61 areas for improvement.

ASB chief economist Anthony Byett says fuel prices have risen 25 per cent since the end of last year.

Healthy profits by the oil industry have also rubbed salt into motorists' wounds, strengthening claims by consumer groups that there is little real competition in the industry.

BP, Mobil and Shell are reported to have increased their profits between 66 and 138 per cent for the year to December.

The managing director of Stagecoach New Zealand, Bill Ray, said the company did not want to raise fares -- but it may be forced to do so.

"It's a bit of a dilemma for us: we're trying to encourage people to use public transport rather than their cars, so we would prefer that motorists got hit in the pocket and took the bus instead," he said.

"However increasing fuel costs, combined with the wage rises that we are paying out, are putting pressure on transport operators."

- NZPA