A Perth trucking business boss has blasted rising fuel prices making it tougher for him to turn a profit at a time when the effect of Brexit is still taking its toll.
George McLaughlan, managing director of McLaughlan Transport, hit out as prices at the pump for petrol in Perth reached as much as 191.9 pence per litre at some filling stations while near Kinross some stations were charging up to 194.9p per litre
Mr McLaughlan blamed the crisis in Ukraine and the behaviour of multi-nationals as well as the actions of particular politicians for creating a situation where his profit margin is being squeezed even harder under already precarious circumstances.
He offered his views just days before the UK government’s business secretary Kwasi Kwartang this week asked the Competition and Markets Authority to conduct an “urgent” review of the fuel market amid what he called “widespread concern” about the pace of price rises.
“For us it’s been an almost 30 per cent increase in costs in the last few months which is devastating,” Mr McLaughlan told the PA.
“Up to now we’ve been able to pass on some of the cost to our customers but what we are finding now is that this is slowing up demand quite considerably.
“Unfortunately, we are in a war situation, and until such time as the government realises that and starts rationing fuel instead of the multinationals exploiting the market, it will go up and up and up.
“It’s a very fluid situation. Nobody’s knows what will happen. But, as [former US president John F] Kennedy said, ‘crisis is danger and opportunity’.
“You’ve just got to do the best you can and make the most economical use of the fuel.
“But this is going to effect everybody in the long run.”
Mr McLaughlan half-jokingly suggested his business having to cope with the rise in cost of fuel was preparing it for the shock of having to pay to switch to using more environmentally friendly fuels some time in the future, however.
“The good side of it - if there is a good side - is it will bring it into line with the cost of the alternative fuels - the hydrogen, the electricity - which is going to be a tremendous leap in costs,” he said.
“This fuel escalation may soften us up for that blow.”
Mr McLaughlan went on to take aim at Brexit-supporting politicians for contributing to his woes.
“What has happened with Brexit is all our farmer customers have stopped exporting to the EU,” he said. “The produce is just going to waste.
“So I’m afraid Boris [Johnson] has lost that market to the British people.”
And he continued: “Brexit has been horrendous. One customer had to completely stop exporting eggs because DEFRA (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) couldn’t provide forms for them.
"And the extra paperwork connected with exporting a load of, for instance, Brussel sprouts, [costs] more than the value of the sprouts.
“So he [Johnson] has been very successful in stopping trade.”
