On the Hume Highway, it takes four shots of coffee, $2,553 of fuel and a little hair metal to keep the wheels of the Australian economy turning.But fuel costs mean the truckies' next delivery could be higher prices at the check-out.Sean Mulvaney climbs into his royal blue sleeper cab, named Whiskers.This is his home away from home.As one of 11 long-haul drivers for a small Victorian logistics company, Sean makes the 880-kilometre trip from Melbourne to Sydney a couple of times a week, transporting everything from dog food and e-waste to mattresses and PVC pipes.Today, it's full of fibreglass sheets.Sean and Whiskers are on the frontline of the fuel crisis as the global transport industry grapples with soaring costs stemming from war in the Middle East.And as the biggest consumer of diesel in the world per capita, Australia is feeling the strain.Sean's just said goodbye to his partner, Liz, who likes to drop him off at his truck before a long-haul trip."It gives me that grounded home feeling before I say 'see ya' for six days," he says.First, he needs to fill up his 42-tonne semi But in the meantime, trucking companies have been hit hard."They were pretty slow to act on it," Milton says, "and even what they've done has barely touched."We had to find $100,000 to cover fuel before the customer pays for the job that's been done … It all happened very quickly, but we needed the government to move quickly too."It'll take about nine hours for Sean to get to Sydney