April 1, 2026 – The worsening fuel crisis is forcing Australian sole traders to rethink how they work, with many turning down jobs, absorbing higher costs and cutting back travel as margins tighten.
New data from sole accounting platform Hnry shows Australian sole traders have reduced their work-related travel by 23.6 per cent in just four weeks, while the average cost per trip increased by 9.4 per cent, with the situation described as ‘cooked’. Hnry Australia Managing Director Karan Anand says the impact is even more pronounced among tradies, where fuel is a non-negotiable cost of doing business.
“Their business travel has dropped by nearly 40per cent in just one month, but their per-trip fuel costs have still increased,” he says.
Josiah Bernier, a sole trader painter/decorator from Cairns, says the fuel crisis is worse than Covid.
“It escalated so quickly and came out of nowhere, so there was no time to prepare,” he says. “I’ve started to leave my tools on site and use an electric scooter to get to and from the job in an effort to reduce my fuel consumption. I’ve turned down work if it’s too far away, and I’m only doing smaller local jobs unless the client is prepared to cover that cost.
“The additional fuel cost comes in around $20 to $30 a day, which can quickly add up for a bigger job, so I won’t take on jobs that are further afield unless the client is willing to pay for my additional out-of-pocket fuel cost. I’ve stopped quoting on jobs more than 30 minutes away, as I can spend a lot of time travelling around for jobs I may not secure, so it’s just not worth it. Honestly, life’s hard enough as it is, to now add in the extra fuel cost, it feels like it’s becoming unmanageable.”
While he welcomes the Government’s fuel excise tax relief, he worries about the longer-term economic impact.
“As a father of five, I am concerned about the amount of debt the country is taking on and what that means for the future,” he says. “With a population of almost 28 million, once you take out the elderly and those too young to work, that doesn’t leave many taxpayers to pay down our near $1 trillion of gross government debt. I wonder if this short-term fix is worth the long-term pain for the younger generation.”
Anand says many sole traders are being forced to absorb rising costs rather than pass them on, or turn down work that requires lengthy travel, particularly in competitive or price-sensitive sectors.
“There’s a limit to what you can charge before customers walk away, so a lot of people are wearing the cost themselves. Sole traders don’t have big buffers, procurement teams or company fuel cards – it’s just them, making decisions in real time and with fuel prices rising this rapidly, it doesn’t just hit their wallet, it changes their behaviour,” he says.
Hnry’s expense analysis tracked more than 10,000 users across New Zealand and Australia who recorded a fuel or mileage expense in both the second week of February and the second week of March 2026.
The cost of fuel in Cairns, Queensland’s far northern outpost, 1800 klms north of Brisbane is the canary in the coal mine for ongoing commerce and viability of the tourist sector. Diesel prices range from $3.00 to $3.30 per litre and petrol from $2.60 per litre.
Today’s closure of the iconic Raptis Seafoods, Australia’s largest wild-caught prawning operation will send shock waves across the Far North with the loss of 200 jobs in Queensland and South Australia.
Based at Karumba in the Gulf of Carpentaria for 60 years, Raptis’ cold stores and fishing boats (above) provided essential infrastructure for the region’s prawn industry.
The receivers advertised the business for sale but no buyers came forward. Seafood distribution networks across the state south to the Gold Coast and Adelaide will be in disarray.
Born from an Adelaide fish-and-chip shop opened in the 1950s by Greek migrants Arthur Raptis Sr and his wife Anna, the business quickly grew into a wild-caught seafood empire spanning Queensland and South Australia.
Elbow offers a real solution for a change
https://www.tiktok.com/@alwaysgettingnannered/video/7623511453416361234
Anybody that blames Iran for our fuel crisis is a nut case. It was all caused by Trump, Netanyahu, our own politicians and the greenies.
We used to produce oil out of our own geological formations, refine in oil refineries in several States of Australia until politicians started to implement policies from overseas. The area where I have lived most of my life had its own refinery at Kwinana. Now only a storage facility. My father worked on the construction. From memory there used to be a refinery at Geelong, Kernel, and Brisbane as well.
A few years ago I bought shares in an oil recovery project and was informed of a huge basin of oil in South Australia. The biggest so far discovered on our continent. It seems that project has been taken over by Malaysia or Singapore. The excuse was lack of capital, but was it really politics?
Why is there a great outcry over the oil reduction over a very short time. Haven’t we been assured by politicians and greenies that solar and wind power can replace the old fashioned environmental destroying energy products of oil, coal and gas?
How many greenies are now whingeing about the shortage of oil products?
For my latest report see https://gumshoenews.com/the-fantasy-world-of-politics/
Australia closing down oil refineries now this.
All going to plan folks.
What do the likes of Simon Holmes a Court have to say about all this.
24cents per litre will hasten to shortage of fuel as Joe Blow fills the Kingswood to get to his Easter destination and coming home finds there is no fuel to be found .because supply cannot meet demand .
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I daresay that labour has well and truly cooked their re-election opportunities since showing their kindergarten attitude to a fuel shgortage that affects the country so badly.
Hopefully they will never ever recover from the stupidity of globalist tactics.
Convid was supposed to be 2 weeks to flatten the curve. That turned into about 4 years to flatten the economy. Now energy, it was supposed to be one month to put Iran in its place, now it looks like a 2 year downgrade in living conditions of the West. Thanks duds. Trump tells other countries “go and get your own oil”. Does he mean like Venezuela? Hypocrite, bully and theft much?
To the ATTENTION
All Truckies Farmers Mining Companies and all that use diesel / Petrol
Australia has everything, the only thing stopping this country from being the envy of all other nation is our wheelhouse.
The captain and his crew are not up to it, simply because they have not Australia’s and all Australian’s best interest at heart, they are driven by a fake, failed ideological agenda not suited for this planet.
We have Coal, Oil, Gold, Silver, +++++++ the list goes on and on.
Just as important we have world class technology.
See Youtube
Malcolm Bendall
Thunderstorm Generator
Technology for Ships, Trains, Road Trains, Busses, Trucks Tradies Utes, Boats, Cars, anything that runs on fuel running costs can be significantly reduced with no harmful emissions, time to operate smarter, and piss the climate fear mongering right off.
Gerard Donohue
donohuegerard50@gmail .com
Trump now telling countries “go and get your own oil” after everything is smashed up, what he is doing is 2 things, first saving money from his expensive military which they cannot afford without US$ hegemony which BRICS has savaged and second he is making a case for more oil infrastructure and Ben Gurion Canal through to Gaza. The big US contractors like Kellogg Brown Root will get these types of jobs. Saudis already started with “The Line” pointed at the middle of the Persian Gulf coastline between Bah’rain and Kuwait. If we get the Grand Solar Minimum as some people have predicted, this “Line” development will be more attractive, and the cities of UAE area will merge in. Look through the eyes of a developer and it all makes perfect sense
The author quotes Josiah Bernier, a sole trader painter/decorator from Cairns – “… Honestly, life’s hard enough as it is, to now add in the extra fuel cost, it feels like it’s becoming unmanageable…”
Poor Josiah has no idea, folks, no idea just how bad it’s gonna get in the coming months and YEARS. Wait until no-one is even asking him for a quote because no-one has any money, there’s no jobs and no food and no medicine and no Centrelink payments and no shit in the stores and the banksters de-bank EVERYONE and we’re all LOCKED DOWN and hunted in the streets for sport by the CORPORATE ARMIES of shit-for-brains hired mercenary thugs who market themselves as “police”.
But guess what folks? Life’s not hard for all the foreign-owned sold-out paid-off pollies and unelected beauracrats and public officials and corporate bigwigs and the blood-sucking banksters, because WE PAY to keep them ALL in unfettered wealth and luxury NO MATTER WHAT, whether we like it or not. If they’re lacking for ANYTHING then they’ll send their CORPORATE ARMIES of gun-toting shit-for-brains Granny-bashing child-molesting pig-raping mass-murdering hired mercenary thugs around to beat it out of YOU. They’ll even dig up your grave to strip your corpse and extract your gold teeth if they feel the need.
So when we’re all drowning in destitution and hardship and desperation and poverty and hunger and homelessness and disease and DEATH, they DO NOT give a rat’s arse. Why should they, WE’RE expendable, our country is expendable, while THEY’RE on the baby-eating genocidal Satanic Globalists’ payroll and THEY’RE looking forward to their seat at Lucifer’s table as WE all rot in shallow graves or get processed into Soylent Green.
They’ve been GASLIGHTING us for DECADES now, folks, while they systematically DEMOLISH our economy and industry and society, it’s all been meticulously planned and faithfully relelentlessly ruthlessly remorsely EXECUTED just like they plan to eventually EXECUTE ALL OF US.
So here we are, folks, another expertly crafted diabolically manufactured global LOCKSTEP “crisis” that no-one saw coming but Super Trump was deliriously eager to impose, the “not a war” brought to us by Peace President Ginger Nuts . Hooray! They’re not gonna stop, folks, they’re not even going to slow this genocidal nation-destroying BS down, not one little bit, until we’re all owning nothing and being happy, or DEAD.
Think you can last another five or six years of this ORCHESTRATED GENOCIDAL GLOBALIST SHIT? Good luck with that, because that’s how much more of this steaming mountain of Satanic BS we have to endure before enough Useless Eaters FINALLY figure it out and Mr. Rope and Mr. Lamp Post come riding into town.
𝐄𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐄𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐲 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐍 𝐢𝐬 𝐖𝐞𝐚𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐄𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐭 𝐙𝐞𝐫𝐨
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑾𝒂𝒓 𝒐𝒏 𝑬𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝑯𝒆𝒓𝒆. 𝑬𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚 𝒇𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒚 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒔, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆-𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒖𝒎𝒑𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒏𝒐 𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓 𝒉𝒚𝒑𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒓𝒊𝒐𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚’𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒆𝒏𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝑬𝒖𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒆𝒚𝒐𝒏𝒅. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆 𝒂 ❞𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒔❞ 𝒊𝒔, 𝒊𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝒂 𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒍𝒂𝒑𝒔𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒐𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒍 𝒇𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆, 𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒄𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒐𝒄𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒔 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒅𝒓𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑵𝒆𝒕 𝒁𝒆𝒓𝒐 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝒚𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒈𝒐. 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝑺𝒍𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒂’𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒆𝒍 𝒑𝒖𝒓𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒔𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒆 𝒄𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒃𝒊𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒆𝒔, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒚𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒊𝒔 𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓: 𝒄𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒄, 𝒋𝒖𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒚 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒈𝒚 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏.
📌 https://volknews.com/2026/03/23/engineered-energy-crisis-how-the-un-is-weaponizing-the-crisis-to-enforce-net-zero/
166.6666666666667 is how many times the bottle of water was worth more than the litre of fuel at that service station, for those who did not work that out.
Astonishing! Amazing!…I divided 500 cents (The litre bottle of water), by 3 cents (the litre of fuel)…
166.6666666666667
WTF was I watching?
After quite a spend on some gear for my new business venture, which requires the use of a 4×4 which I was about to buy…I think it is has been killed off before I ever really got started. My costs, before I have made any money at all, are suddenly already through the roof before I have even got started! Near bankruptcy, the business, because of the price of fuel. It will take more investment now and to factor in the price of fuel..
Seen a video many months ago, it was most likely Libya but it could have been Lebanon, the price of a bottle of water was worth about $5 and the price of fuel at the pump per litre was worth about 3c. It felt like watching ‘the twilight zone’, for many reasons…So we get cheap water out of the tap, they get cheap fuel, like it is on tap but they are ‘paying through the nose’ for their water…
The UN’s Agenda 2030/The WEF’s ‘The Great Reset’ : By 2030, you will own nothing and be happy.
All the information about such is out there…
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