SYDNEY, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- Australia's largest transport company is threatening to take its fleet of trucks to the suburban streets in protest of an impending toll hike.
Lindsay Fox, owner of trucking giant Linfox, has revealed that his company is looking at alternate suburban routes to avoid the toll rise.
Fox reportedly engaged in a yelling match with Scott Charlton, CEO of toll road operator Transurban, over the toll hike from nine U.S. dollars per day for a heavy vehicle to 20 U.S. dollars per day per vehicle.
The charge is to help Transurban recuperate costs for its share of freeway widening projects across Melbourne which will be finished in 2018.
Martin Wurt, secretary of the Maribyrnong Truck Action Group (MTAG), said more trucks using suburban roads would have significant adverse health impacts on people in Melbourne's west.
"They should stay on the freeway where they belong," Wurt told News Limited on Friday.
"We have about 22,000 truck movements a day so we've already got an enormous problem.
"Some of the most major freight routes in Melbourne are residential streets in the inner-west."
Wurt said heavy vehicle traffic in Melbourne's west had contributed to the City of Maribyrnong having an asthma rate 50 per cent above the state average and for hospital admission rates for children with breathing problems being 117 percent above the national average.
"I'd be very surprised if Lindsay Fox thinks putting more pollution in front of our primary schools is a solution to his company having to pay more tolls," he said.
Charlton reportedly refused to change the toll price in the wake of Fox's threats but Transurban will help Linfox analyse logistics such as the timing of trips to keep trucks on the freeway.
Luke Donnellan, Victoria's Roads Minister, said the toll increases were agreed by the previous government and announced and there was nothing he could do.
