The Road Freight Association has outlined the impact of fuel price hikes on consumer pockets, saying transport cost increases could result in people struggling financially to get to work.
Motorists in South Africa are facing yet another big hike in the fuel price from Wednesday.
The Energy Department says petrol will go up by 81c/litre, diesel by between 72 and 74c/litre and illuminating paraffin will go up by over 40c/litre.
This means that petrol will cost more than R 20 a litre inland. The petrol price has been hiked by over R2 a litre in just two months.
The Road Freight Association’s CEO is Gavin Kelly says the price hike could result in commuters struggling to get to work.
“There are a lot of people who need to use public transport and their own transport to get to work. So every time you see a 50c rise in a litre of fuel you know that the average worker is looking like a 7% increase in transport costs and if that keeps happening every month, you can imagine 2-3 months down the line, we are paying so much more for transport costs and my salary and wages just aren’t increasing. So you are going to see people struggling to get to work on a daily basis,” says Kelly.
The price hikes are on the back of a weaker rand and firm oil prices.
VIDEO: Motorists face yet another big jump in fuel prices:
