“Enough‘s enough” was the call from truckies taking part in Monday‘s protest against rising fuel costs.

Petrol prices have hit record highs this year, after the Government’s latest 3.5c excise tax increase and Auckland Council’s 11.5c regional fuel tax.

RNB Transport owner Rob Ryan says he decided to organise the convoy of up to 100 trucks that left Silverdale bound for the central city because he wasn‘t prepared to just sit back and watch fuel prices soar.

“Pretty much everyone was moaning about it, and I think everyone else was scared to do it. Somebody said to me on a social media page, ‘stop whinging about it, why don‘t you do something about it?‘ So I thought, ‘you know what? I will.‘”

Rob says he‘s had a bit of flack regarding the protest, but it won‘t stop him from organising another one if he has to.

“I had a couple of phone calls from associations that I belong to, asking what I was doing. If they‘re not with me then that‘s fine, but I‘m not going to stop it because there are a lot of pissed off people. I didn‘t have quite as many trucks as I thought would turn up, but we got 80 to 100, and it was good enough to say, ‘look, we‘re here, you‘d better start listening because we‘re coming back in another month if you‘re not‘.”

Rob says people throughout the country are suffering because of rising fuel costs.

“This is about our country, this is about people; it isn‘t just about me or RNB, this is about everybody. The fuel price increases affect everything, down to the coffee you drink out of a mug. What do you think delivers those mugs to the warehouses? Trucks. What picks up wood out of the forests and takes it to the trains? Trucks. What delivers your food? Trucks. What picks up your milk from your farm? Not a train, but a truck. So everything will be impacted.”

The slow-moving protest and short park-up in the central city was all about getting the Government‘s attention.

“We can only start small and hopefully get people behind us to do it again. And we will do it again if no one‘s listening,” says Rob.

“We got amazing support from the public. We got the odd bird from a couple of people but hey, you‘ve got to expect that! Not everybody‘s behind us and we don‘t expect that. But at the end of the day, we‘re out there for a cause. Enough is enough, stop these increases in fuel because you‘re going to do nothing for this country.”

Rob says the continuing fuel price rises and tax additions are beyond a joke.

“I‘m not rich, I‘m not poor; I‘m in between. I‘m just a normal person with a family and a mortgage, and I‘ve also got business debt paying off my trucks, but there are people out there who aren‘t going to be able to get to work to buy the bread and milk because they can‘t afford the gas.

“I‘m in a lucky position in that I can use my trucks for the good stuff, not the bad. We get a load of bad publicity and not everyone likes us, but I tell you what, all the people once we stopped on Custom Street East, looking out the windows of their buildings, filming and waving, you know, that‘s what it was about. Those people there, who have to go to work to earn their living.”

Rob says he‘s fully prepared to repeat the protest run on 15 November if nothing changes.

“I even warned Mayor Phil Goff up there, ‘you‘re keeping my seat warm because I‘m coming to get it‘. If nothing happens from this one, watch next month.”