Merlo: "The recovery is at risk"
MERLO RECOVERY - A few days ago the Vice President of Conftrasporto and President of Federlogistica, Luigi Merlo, today gave an interview to La Stampa. The participation aims to launch the alarm on the enormous deficiency of truck drivers against the surge of the question of transport services goods in arrival in the Italian ports. This lack, according to Merlon puts at risk the post-pandemic crisis recovery.
Serious lack of truck drivers
After two years of economic crisis due to the pandemic, the time has come to think about getting out of the economic recession that Covid has caused. The preconditions for doing so are there, but they risk not being fulfilled. In fact it is becoming more and more difficult to let out container and therefore goods from the ports, in Italy, but not only.
The problem arises from the difficulty of finding lorry drivers able to transport goods from ports to places of destination. The increase in demand for transport services, to be satisfied, requires, according to estimates, 20 thousand truckers. A number that seems impossible to reach, so much so that instead of increasing the number of employees, is decreasing.
In Italy, in fact, most of the truckers come from the Eastern countries, but according to what Merlo reports, who today prefer to stay to work near home. This is because, in the last year, in countries like Romania, there has been an increase in production and consumption volumes that have led to an increase in work for truckers, resulting in an increase in salary.
The situation is also problematic in England, where, however, brexit played an important role, making it more difficult to employ foreign staff. But the consequences that this has generated are worse than in Italy, for the moment.
According to Merlo the problem of the truckers can hinder the resumption
The absence of lorry drivers in England has led to a shortage of petrol in petrol stations and milk on the shelves of small and large retailers. In Italy they still do not feel the effects, but we could get there soon if the situation does not improve quickly.
To Genoa they bring back as the goods uses from seven to ten days in order to leave the port and this has of the repercussions on the final costs of the produced ones. Those who have invested in methane machines, to follow in the wake of the ecological transition trying to save money, have had a bitter surprise. Within 12 hours, the price of environmentally friendly fuel has doubled. However, this also applies to the rest of road transport, which requires 15% more than a few days ago.
"All extra costs that combined with the slowdowns of the logistic funnel, make Italy lose competitiveness. So we risk to play the recovery- declares Merlo"
The idea of Merlon not to slow down the recovery
"Urgent government intervention is needed. It would be enough to reduce the cost of driving licences for trucks, so as to increase the number of truck drivers. And then to avoid that on the docks continue to accumulate the containers, it serves the derogation to the circulation also on the weekends".
To know more about eco-fuels than the methane mentioned, click here
