Big rigs descend on Auckland city: Truckies protest high petrol prices. / Newstalk ZB
Truck drivers from around the Auckland region plan to come out bigger and louder as they are set to protest the rising fuel taxes and prices for a second time.
Last month truckies drove into Auckland's CBD in convoy, but this time they are coming back for more in an attempt to force government action.
RNB Transport Ltd owner Rob Ryan told the Herald the rising fuel tax and prices has stung many in transport and building industry.
Ryan said his own company has lost clients during to rising prices and wants Kiwis to stand up for themselves.
"You go do a protest and the first time people look at you and think 'what a pack of dicks'.
"They back you up but no one is really keen to do much about it. Then the second time people start to sit back and notice.
"The first time was to say we've had enough of rising fuel taxes and if you don't start reducing taxes and prices, we'll be coming back again, and again, and again until something happens.
"Regardless of whether it be a campervan, a truck, a car, people are struggling and it seems nobody gives a crap about it in government. It's like they say 'we'll just keep taking the money off you'.
"They don't realise there is a huge roll-on effect. You don't just put up tax. all that increases is your costs. If people have to cover those costs.
"We've lost a couple of clients because we've had to put our rates up to suck up the cost.
"You can ask any trucking owner how much your business has dropped off because of these increases and the stop of people coming into the country to build houses.
"Then all of a sudden you have people who can't afford to do housing. The only housing that's really happening is the government stuff.
"Every material goes up in price. You want to get your concrete delivered to the site, the scoria, the bricks to the site, the blocks to the site, your digging costs, everything goes up in price."
Last month's truck convoy heads into the city.
The planned protest is set to take place on Thursday, November 15, near the Might Ape store on Wainui Rd in Silverdale at around 6.30am.
The truck drivers plan to hit the Northern Motorway at 7am, going past the Silverdale offramp before descending over the Harbour Bridge and into the city.
Truck drivers will be coming from north of Auckland and from out west to join the protest, with Ryan expecting the second round of protesting to be bigger and better than the first.
Ryan told the Herald their protest is on behalf of all New Zealanders in all industries, backgrounds and age groups.
He says the whole country is feeling the pinch and it's time someone made a stand.
"We're not out there to piss people off. We're out to say if you're not going to stand up and take three hours off work, then we are. It costs us money too.
"We're taking time out of our day to support the cause, and the cause is stop putting prices and tax up. People can't afford it.
"All I want is a fair go. The Government says they're not going to put up any more regional fuel tax until 2020. But what happens after 2020?
"Winston Peters has always preached he wants to look after the elderly, but then we go and raise fuel prices. Many elderly can barely afford to live anyway and then we go and do this to them. That's not looking after them."
Petrol prices have hit record highs after the Government's latest 3.5c excise tax increase and Auckland Council's 11.5c regional fuel tax.
The impact of the taxes on prices have been compounded in recent weeks by a rise in the price of oil and fall in the New Zealand dollar.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern month week said the Government was taking action on reining in high fuel prices by looking to pass a bill to give the Commerce Commission greater powers to conduct a market study to investigate how prices were set.
She said she thought "consumers are being fleeced" at the petrol pump.
But National leader Simon Bridges said the Government fuel taxes were the reason petrol prices were going up.
Ryan agrees and promises the trucking community won't go away until change is made.
"Hear us out. We're not doing this because we feel like going down the motorway with a heap of trucks. There's a reason for it. If you aren't going to listen to us a second time, guess what, we'll be coming back a third time and we'll be bigger."
