Greece: Truckers cause quite a Confusion tagged: , , , , ,

Greece: Truckers cause quite a Confusion

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Economy

Truck owners have caused quite a confusion announcing last Saturday they will go on a permanent strike together with their collegues of  public-use fuel tankers supplying petrol stations with fuel and those from  international transport sector.

The announcement created long queues of cars outside the 600 petrol stations in the prefecture of Attica and other Greek cities.

This morning though trucker unions spokesmen announced that they will not proceed to a strike but they will only hold a  protest demonstration. This morning quite some main roads of Athens were jammed as truck owners had parked handreds of trucks on the sides of main and national roads in a protest action.

Confusion is still continueing though,  as truckers are expected to enter a  “white strike”, i.e. handing the keys of their vehicles to the Ministry of Transport.

The uncertainty about possible fuel shortages spurs  motorists to rush to petrol stations in order to tank up fearing of similar chaotic situations as in last July, when the country was dried up of fuel.

State news agency ANA reported that several petrol stations in Attica  ran out of unleaded petrol within the last 24 hours as many motorists rushed to petrol stations on Sunday. Petrol-station owners believe that there would not be any problems with petrol supply as petrol companies’ are running their tanker trucks.

The government has set a cap on upper fuel prices in Athens and Thessaloniki as many petrol stations owners increased their prices due to the high demand.

Last July the government issued an order for “civilian mobilization“,  which has not been withdrawn when state and truckers went into a”truce” deal, August 1st.  The governmental civilian mobilisation gives the state the right to “requisition” the trucks, as they are licensed for public use.

Truck owners demand that the government will withdraw a bill to  liberalise their so called “closed” sector and allow new licenses to be issued. 

The government wants to open the freight market in order to cut the transport costs of goods and increase competitiveness, as demanded by lenders IMF and EU.