National Road Carriers has released its new Customisable Cost Index.

The industry body worked with Infometrics and Statistics New Zealand over the last 12 months to build the interactive tool.

NRC GM Policy and Advocacy James Smith said the next quarter is going to be “a shocker” with road user charges going back up after the discount came off in July, sharp increase in fuel prices from the falling dollar and increasing vehicle prices pushing up finance costs.

“A significant number of operators are under stress because of these cost pressures and then on top of that we have a slowing economy,” said Smith.

“The Customisable Cost Index is an interactive tool that allows operators to see the impact of cost increases on their businesses. It allows users to align the index to their business because there is no such thing as a generic transport business.”

To get the best value from the tool, transport companies need to know what percentage of their total costs are fuel, labour, tyres, maintenance, road user charges and finance.

“If they don’t know these percentages they shouldn’t panic as we can easily run a cost model for them that will provide them,” said Smith.

“Users can then move a slider to select their starting quarter. The index has data from 2009 through to the June quarter of this year.

“They can also choose to see their costs excluding fuel. This is important if they already have a Fuel Adjustment Factor in place. They can then print off their own cost index.”

Included in the index is a brief commentary from Infometrics chief forecaster Gareth Kiernan on where he sees the key points to be.