Like many small business owners in western Sydney, Brett Jenkins says he is ripped off by tolls.
Jenkins runs a tow truck business and sometimes spends over $250 a week on toll roads, as he crisscrosses Sydney for work from his home in St Clair. He said the tolls were “punishing” businesses based in western Sydney.
“It is destroying us, it’s eating the profit out of the truck,” he said.
Tow truck driver Brett Jenkins at a workshop in Yennora. He says western Sydney’s tolls are severely affecting his business. Credit: Sam Mooy
“Just getting to and from jobs can cost me $60, sometimes $70 a day. And I have to pass that onto customers.”
Jenkins said he had received complaints from customers about his prices.
“They whinge, but $50 of a tow is going into tolls and another $50 is going into fuel. Every time,” he said.
While drivers of Class A vehicles – cars and motorcycles – qualify for NSW’s $60 toll cap, small businesses and sole traders who drive trucks get no relief.
As the state government continues negotiations with toll operators, seeking to reorganise how the city’s tolls work as the cap approaches its January 1 expiration date, western Sydney’s small businesses are demanding that their experiences be considered.
Jenkins said he has no choice but to use toll roads for pick-ups, with alternative routes sometimes taking twice the time, limiting the number of jobs he can complete a day, and where he can work.
The business development manager of construction company Diamond Building, Daniel Atkinson, said he has to factor tolls into every decision: from who he hires to jobs he takes.
“We aren’t in a position to change our prices, the market is too competitive,” he said. “So the tolls become just another overhead we factor in, sometimes accounting for 15 per cent of what we make on jobs.
“Without that weight, we’d be able to hire more, we could hit more markets across the city, we could negotiate better terms with our tradesmen. It means you need to make decisions you don’t want to, on jobs and employees.”
Atkinson has worked in construction for 20 years but only recently took a salaried role after concluding it was “too expensive” to own his own business in western Sydney.
He now manages 13 employees and can have up to seven different cars on the road. The business pays up to $1500 in tolls each week.
Diamond Building Group business development manager Daniel Atkinson and owner Cameron Neilsen, outside their Emu Plains office, say small businesses are struggling with the burden of toll costs in western Sydney. Credit: Sitthixay Ditthavong
“It’s galling because, like everyone else, we pay our taxes, and yet we are being punished because we are based in the west and have to travel east for most of our jobs,” Atkinson said. “It’s holding the business back.”
The lack of alternative routes for western Sydney drivers was raised by the 2024 Independent Toll Review.
Taxi drivers such as Mohsin Kherada remain frustrated that they have to pay tolls for what he describes as his “commute, like everyone else”.
“I have to drive into the city to find work, there aren’t customers here in Edmondson Park. And that can cost me $17 just to get to a place where I can work, and then $17 to come back home.
“It’s killing me, I can’t keep doing it. It makes me want to quit and become a forklift driver.”
Executive director of Business Western Sydney David Borger said the tolls “effectively discriminate” against drivers in western Sydney because they have “longer trips.”
“There’s a clear case for long-term toll relief, recognising the extra distances clocked up by Western Sydney residents and businesses.”
He added that it was imperative the government “provide certainty” on what will replace the $60 toll cap, adding that “small businesses and owner drivers also make a compelling case for more relief and deserve certainty as soon as possible.
Campbelltown Chamber of Commerce president Shefali Pall said lowering the toll bill for small businesses needs to be a priority for the government.
“Western Sydney is the industrial and manufacturing powerhouse of the state. We have a huge workforce, are an enormous part of the state’s economic output, with workers in the most essential industries,” Pall said.
“It’s about getting the attention and love we deserve, simply because we are one of the largest contributors to the economy. We just want to see these contributions reciprocated.”
Pall said there were several measures the government should consider, including a toll cap for small businesses or a rebate based on distance travelled.
A NSW government spokesperson said they were in “direct deal negotiations” with toll operators over “reforms aimed at restoring fairness to the system, particularly for those in western Sydney who pay the most, travel the furthest and, in many cases, can afford it the least”.
“Discussions with private concessionaires are ongoing and complex due to the $195 billion toll bill out to 2060 left behind by the former Coalition government for NSW motorists,” the spokesperson said.
The Independent Toll Review, led by former ACCC chair Professor Allan Fels and former Prices Surveillance Authority chair Dr David Cousins, is guiding the government’s negotiations.
The review called the current toll system a “poorly functioning patchwork”. It found motorists from western Sydney were “most disadvantaged by current tolls” and that the “financial impact of tolls is greatest in western Sydney”.
“The current structure of tolls is producing geographically inequitable results, with motorists from western Sydney spending the most and having fewer alternative options,” it found.
The Sydney Morning Herald has opened a bureau in the heart of Parramatta. Email parramatta@smh.com.au with news tips.