\n<\/p>\n
Analysis by BBC Scotland News suggests there are at least 226 sites – stretching from the Borders to Shetland – where the price of a litre of diesel is greater than \u00a32.<\/p>\n
Some of the highest prices are in island and rural areas, including 238.8p and 223p in the Hebrides and 209.0p and 208.9p in the Northern Isles.<\/p>\n
South Uist-based haulier Norman MacAskill said it cost 32p a litre to fill a lorry’s tank when he started in the haulage business 40 years ago, but it was now \u00a32.22.<\/p>\n
“Anyone who is running a lorry is absolutely devastated when they get their fuel bill at the end of the month. There’s no business on earth that can withstand that increase in costs,” he said.<\/p>\n
MacAskill’s haulage firm, N D MacAskill & Son, transports livestock around Inverness, Dingwall and Stirling but also further afield.<\/p>\n
“We do a bit of livestock haulage from the north of Scotland down to the north of England,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a devastating cost on a fuel run on that job,” he said.<\/p>\n
MacAskill added: “This has been going on every year for the last 10 years now. The cost of running a haulage business has just gone over the top.<\/p>\n
“There are dozens of haulage firms that have been established 50-60 years with big numbers of lorries going to the wall. When is this going to stop?”<\/p>\n
Dave Neil, who runs Sinclair Haulage which serves Sanday, Stronsay and Eday in Orkney, said his business was spending \u00a3400 a week more on diesel than it was before the summer.<\/p>\n
“It’s a challenging situation,” he said.<\/p>\n
Neil said he was forced to add an extra fee to his customers’ costs.<\/p>\n
“It’s probably the fairest way,” he said. “When the fuel price drops we can take that surcharge away.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n