Trucking in a fuel crisis: the Australian driver sacrificing his paycheck for diesel – video

Frank is a truck owner-driver, meaning he owns his own truck, picks up contracts wherever he happens to be in Australia and pays for his own fuel. He can spend up to two months at a time on the road, and lives by the rule-of-thumb that one third of a job's pay should go to fuel, one third should go to truck maintenance and the remaining third is his wages.  But the war in Iran, leading to increased diesel prices, has put significant financial strain on this model. Coupled with historically slim margins in the transport industry, it's threatening to send drivers like Frank over the edge

• Oil price rises back above $100 a barrel as energy market may be past ‘point of no return’