The shadow of the blockade of heavy vehicles hovers over Calabria. The road haulage sector is experiencing a period of great difficulty due to the high price of diesel, with the price of fuel having steadily exceeded 2 euros per litre. Trade associations, including Fedralog and Unatras, denounce unsustainable costs that put the survival of businesses at risk. In particular, Fedralog Calabria expresses strong concern about the absence, to date, of concrete responses from the national government. Road haulage companies are facing a dramatic situation: uncontrolled increase in fuel prices, growth in labor costs, insurance increases, increase in maintenance costs, increase in motorway tolls and increasingly longer payment times by clients. Some estimates indicate a burden of up to 9,000 euros per year for each heavy vehicle. Other studies conducted by industry experts ensure that filling up a truck can cost well over 100 euros more than at the beginning of the year.
Many companies are already stopping part of their vehicles to reduce management costs, while numerous hauliers openly declare that they no longer have sufficient liquidity even to meet daily operating expenses. Mario Pansini speaks, as Fedralog Calabria representative: «We are no longer faced with a simple trade union protest, but with a real economic emergency that risks blocking the country’s logistics system. The hauliers have reached the end of the line.”
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