Carriers can not take it anymore and that is why the National Committee for Road Transport has called a three-day strike from December 20 to 22, just before Christmas, to put pressure on the Government and the distribution sector. The main requests are three: alleviate the rise in diesel, prohibit loading and unloading by drivers, and stop the vignette or payment for the use of highways.

"The main problem, and unaffordable, is the rise in diesel," explains Santiago Ramírez, a small businessman who has a fleet of four trucks. "We spend 14,500 liters of diesel per month on the route between Bilbao and Barcelona, ​​which at one euro per litre, would mean 14,500 euros, but at 1.4 euros the cost rises to 20,300."

Francisco Avilés, from Cartagena and with a truck he owns, maintains the same thesis: "Now we pay 1,400 euros more for diesel each month, compared to before the pandemic."

And Óscar Baños, from Palencia, who says that "a liter of diesel is now 40 cents more expensive" despite the fact that he resorts to a cooperative: "We have to stop."

According to the Spanish Confederation of Freight Transport (CETM), majority in calling the strike, the price of diesel has risen by 42% so far this year. "That is why we ask the Government to apply a mandatory price review clause and not increase the taxation of fuels," according to Dulsé Díaz, deputy general secretary of the Confederation.

The added problem for small businesses in the sector is that freight prices do not rise while fuel prices do. "I charged 80,000 pesetas [480.8 euros] in the year 2000 for a loaded trip from Bilbao to Barcelona; today, I charge 483 euros," explains Ramírez, who also emphasizes what he understands as the last straw: "Amazon has dropped prices" .

This carrier also details the little-known side of electronic commerce: "You order some shoes online and they arrive at your house. Wonderful. And they also exchange them for you at no return cost. This means that a long-distance truck brings those shoes to a center of distribution; a small one takes them to the corresponding store and a van takes them home. To return them, the reverse operation is carried out, mobilizing up to three vehicles. And the customer does not pay a euro; this is not economically viable for carriers" .

In this sense, Miguel Ángel Invernón, president of the Association of Self-Employed Parcel Transporters (AATP), recalls that "everything that comes out of the internet pulls prices down. It is not profitable for each postage to be paid at four euros; only diesel costs more". And Ramírez provides context to the break, when inflation is estimated at 5.4% year-on-year in October, pressured by electricity but also by the rise in fuel: "The Government cannot currently allow the transport sector to affect the rise in shipping costs in final products because it would raise the CPI even more".

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"Before I paid 400 euros for a wheel and now it costs me 480," says Baños, who also points out the problems with the supply of AdBlue, an essential urea for diesel trucks to comply with the European Euro 6 regulations on nitrous oxide emissions.

loading and unloading

Added to the cost of fuel is the problem of loading and unloading, where the positions of carriers and employees are opposed. Avilés accuses the companies because "the big distribution and logistics chains force the trucker to load and unload after eight or ten hour trips", and both he and Avilés give Portugal as an example, "where drivers are prohibited from loading and download".

In Avilés's opinion, the logistics and distribution companies "have a very strong lobby that puts pressure on the Ministry of Transport and many jobs are being saved for operators, loaders, forklift drivers and warehouse workers who stop hiring."

salaries

Drivers' salaries vary depending on the companies and the routes. "A paid trucker earns about 2,300 or 2,400 euros if he does international transport and 1,800 or 1,900 if he is national," says Avilés, who responds from Pamplona, ​​arrived from Cartagena and soon headed to Paris, "loaded with lettuce." That sacrifice and low wages contribute to the absence of 15,000 drivers in Spain, according to industry estimates.

For Invern, on the other hand, there is no shortage of drivers. "The problem is that if they pay you 1,300 euros a month for a national route and you have to pay for food every day, the accounts don't work out."

Highway tolls

"The Government adds taxes instead of solutions," criticizes Avilés regarding the payment for use of the highways that the Executive has planned to establish in 2024, starting with the implementation of the vignette for heavy trucks. Baños, for the time being, is concentrating on the difficulties already confirmed: "This is a sum and it goes on. But for the moment it doesn't worry me because there are already many other reasons to go on strike."

"I'm not worried about the vignette. We live up to date without being able to amortize and even with losses. We'll see how we go in 2022 and we'll see what happens in 2023," Ramírez emphasizes.

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