Water truckers hit hard by record amounts of rainfall in the past year, are calling for concessions from the Government.

Norris Burgess, owner of Cove Delight Water, told The Royal Gazette: “A reduction on fuel with free import duty on truck parts would help. Simply due to the large weight that water carries, these trucks have to have the best parts available for safety.”

Farad Furquan, president of the Bermuda Water Truckers Association, said he has an older truck, so he must order parts from Japan and wait two or three months for them to arrive.

“Am I going to stay parked that long, or drive around with at truck that is not completely operational?” he asked. “For fisherman, you still pay for shipping when it comes to fishing boats, but duty is waived.”

He said water truckers needed something similar.

Mr Burgess said many water truckers were down 1,600 to 1,700 loads in the last year.

Numerous potholes caused by the extra rainfall were also taking a toll.

“Last year, I spent over $34,000 repairing road damage to my springs, shocks and tyres,” Mr Burgess said. “I hire a mechanic to look underneath my truck every three months, because of the road conditions. Sometimes, there is cracking and metal must be welded on.”

To cope, many people in the business are diversifying. Dog food making, goat milk production, mowing, tank cleaning and taxi driving are just some of things they are now doing to keep the cash flowing.

In 2022, Antoine Sealey, of NAS Water Service, was doing so well he bought a second truck. Then the rain came, and kept on coming.

Last year, more than 70 inches fell, compared with the average of 55 inches. Mr Sealey’s new truck ended up parked in the yard for most of last year.

“There was not enough money coming in to sustain it,” he said. “I still paid the licensing fees, though. I am now making dog food and mowing grass and doing whatever I need to do, to make ends meet.”

Making things worse was a rise in prices at local water depots a year ago.

Water truckers now pay the depot or water plant roughly $25 per thousand gallons, and charge customers $120 a load, on average.

Mr Sealey said the amount they pay for each load of water might seem insignificant compared with what they charge customers, but they also have to pay maintenance fees to each water depot they use, plus maintenance for their trucks.

He said once everything is paid, water truckers might see half of what they charge the customer.

“There is only so much you can raise the price of water before you lose customers,” Mr Sealey said.

Tirena Rollins, of Liquid Gold Water, has seen water delivery change a great deal in the four years she has been in the business.

“I am relatively new to things,” she said. “At present, I am the only female owner and driver. When I first started, it was quite busy. Over the last year, with all the rain, it has been a struggle.”

Dexter Swan, who services the West End, said one of the problems is that when demand is high local water depots struggle to cope, and can shut down as early as 1am.

“It is a strange industry,” he said. “When there is a lot of demand, we really don’t make any money because the plants can’t take the demand put on them. Then the plants are put on restrictions, and Government shifts to emergency deliveries to places like schools and hospitals.”

Mr Sealey felt that during Covid-19 water truckers did not get the appreciation they deserved for being essential workers.

He often found himself giving water to people for free, because they had lost their jobs during the pandemic and were desperate. Some elderly people told him they had to choose between paying for the medication and paying for water.

He watched as some older customers attempted to pay for their water with pennies and quarters.

“And if you are telling people they need to wash their hands every 15 minutes then they are going to be using more water,” he said.

Not all water truckers said they were suffering.

Darren DeSilva, of Water Now, said: “My company actually delivered more water in 2023 than in 2021.”

He said rain was only one variable in the equation.

“Other factors included the number of trucks in a business’ fleet, and also how hard someone is willing to work during periods of peak demand,” Mr DeSilva said.