Valencian carriers warn of chronic traffic jams in the port after the rise in prices

The rise in fuel prices suffocates carriers, especially those who work short-distance operations.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
23 May 2022 Monday 20:35
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Valencian carriers warn of chronic traffic jams in the port after the rise in prices

The rise in fuel prices suffocates carriers, especially those who work short-distance operations. “They represent an absolute ruin. Carriers will be forced to make the service more expensive and pass on the cost to the terminals themselves or to customers," Carlos García, general secretary of the Valencian Federation of Transport and Logistics Entrepreneurs (FVET), explained yesterday.

Together with the National Federation of Port Transport Associations (Fenatport), the FVET has warned the Port Authority of Valencia (PAV) on Monday that the "chronic traffic jam" in the port terminals is already "unsustainable" and that it requires measures shock “urgent”.

García added yesterday that since the stoppage of activity in March, with the transport stoppages, congestion is “chronic” in the terminals of the port area and they assure that it has increased, the situation being already “critical”. The FVET general secretary affirms that, every day, carriers have to endure queues of up to five hours, which represents an economic loss that is estimated at three million euros per month "at least".

Asked by the Valencian employers about this situation, one of the consequences of the current energy crisis, its president Salvador Navarro has assured this Monday that, if the price of fuel does not drop, the added value of the sector must be transferred to the client.

"Transport cuts across all services and industries and we must try to transfer this value to the customer's price," said Navarro, who alludes to the agreements made a few months ago. Royal Decree-Law 3/2022 sets out how the cost of transport can be recalculated based on the publication of the Ministry of Transport, which weekly figures the variation in the average price of diesel between the time the transport was contracted and carried out.

The president of the Valencian businessmen has also pointed out that the price of fuel, plus the cost of labor, represents 75% of the costs for the transport sector, "and with that, it is difficult for the operating account to improve ", It has been recognized.

The energy crisis greatly affects the logistics sector, which is still dragging the effects of the stoppage of transport. “The weight of road traffic is significant compared to other forms of transport. We demand measures according to this weight before the generalized tension is the one that marks what to do, ”said the FVET yesterday, which resorts to the Statistical Bulletin of the PAV to point out that in 2021 road traffic mobilized 93% of the goods that entered or left the port of Valencia.

In the Valencian Community, according to figures from the FVET, there are 14,800 companies in which more than 94,000 transport professionals work. Professionals who fill the deposit these days at exorbitant prices.

The Government's bonus of 0.20 euros per liter was addressed to them, as well as to the rest of the private drivers, announced last March, which generated a stir in the gas station sector as this sector, mostly made up of SMEs, which is initially charged with the reduction in the final price.

For this reason, the Tax Agency activated in April the online form for requesting the advance payment on account of the 20-cent discount available to all service stations, an "exceptional measure" to which the Generalitat Valenciana joined to "protect" to the nearly 800 Valencian service stations, mainly SMEs and the self-employed. It is part of the so-called ReActiva Plan.

"The Government approved the measure, but that has a consequence that we have to protect, so that their accounts are not affected," said the new Minister of Finance and Economic Model, Arcadi Spain. "It will allow the viability and will favor the implementation of the measure so that the aid can reach the whole world", explained the Minister on Monday.

The IVF aid line has been activated this Monday, but last Friday a webinar was given to the sector to guide them in the thematic request for aid that allows each company to access credits of up to one million euros. The conditions can already be consulted on the IVF website.

Minister Arcadi Spain met yesterday with Manuel Illueca, director of the IVF, and with Salvador Navarro and Esther Gilabert, president and secretary of the CEV, regarding the entry into force of this line, the first of the ReActiva Plan that is put into March.

Spain also assured that "in the coming weeks" the other planned measures are expected to be approved, including the aid bonus of 100 euros per month -for three months- for the self-employed in the sectors most affected by the current energy crisis.