Truck operators will reduce freight charges by 3% on Friday, when the price of standard diesel is set to fall to 33 baht a litre at the pump.
Apichart Prairungruang, chairman of the Land Transport Federation of Thailand, announced the lower charges on Tuesday.
He said federation members had about 400,000 trucks on the roads. They would reduce freight charges by 3% on Friday following the decision by the Oil Fuel Fund to lower the subsidised cap on standard diesel from 33.5 baht a litre to 33 baht, effective from Friday morning.
The federation had prepared a table of freight rates based on the price of diesel, Mr Apichart said.
If the domestic diesel price is cut by 1 baht per litre, truckers will reduce charges by 3%. If the pump price is cut by 2 baht a litre, freight charges will go down by 6%, and by 9% if the diesel price drops 3 baht per litre, the federation chairman said.
He welcomed the diesel price reduction, but said it needed to come down to 28-29 baht per litre to ease the hardship hauliers face with rising operating costs.
The federation now pinned its hopes on the next government addressing the diesel price problem, which had hurt both consumers and businesses.
The Oil Fuel Fund Office’s decision to cut the diesel price to 33 baht a litre this Friday is the fourth in a series of price reductions since early February, when the retail price in Thailand stood at 34.94 baht a litre.
Last April, truck operators had demanded the government continue to cap the diesel price at 30 baht per litre for a year - or they would immediately hike freight rates by 20%.
There is no subsidy on premium diesel, currently retailing at 42.66 baht in the Bangkok area, dearer elsewhere.