Terraplanning sector claims professional diesel in slow gear

“[We would like them to give us a compensation so that we do not do this anymore, which causes damage to our companies. We want this to be resolved today, listen to us, and that we have the long-awaited professional diesel ", said Lusa Rui Cunha, one of the entrepreneurs of this construction subsector who joined the protest.

At the roundabout next to Lordelo’s entrance in the A41, in an industrial zone, there were many trucks waiting for “walking guide” to enter that highway, from which they would follow, to Coimbra, at low speed and with many honking.

Accompanied by the GNR, they followed to Coimbra, via A1, and among the conversations there were words such as loss and a frequent claim: adherence to the fiscal regime of professional diesel, like other sectors and subsectors.

“ Today the trucks stop. Their importance, no”, could be read in front of the truck that opened the column.

Bruno Neto commented on “brutal” increases every week, with a weight of 30% on the company’s accounts, with “70% of the billing going to fuel”.

“ We can't do anything about our contracts. The new ones, we're trying, but the client, there, just won't take it. You start rejecting it because it's too much, and you don't do the work. We try to adjust to work. We have to work, and then we get to the end, we do accounts, and what remains is very little ", lamented.

Asked whether in the company where 27 people work there may be a risk of dismissal or closure, he said that “not yet”, but “if this continues like this, it goes for it”.

Rui Cunha asked the subsector to be heard, because the situation is “almost unbearable”, with contracts “with great difficulty in updating [prices]” and new customers who ponder whether they do the work or not.

Cipriano Jorge, another of the protesters, said that it is “impossible for employers to support the increases, for the consumption of trucks”.

“ It's very sad when you see a global part saying that oil companies have abysmal profits. How is it possible that we are paying for this and the oil companies twice as much? It is not possible”, he criticized.

He hopes that the slow march will be able to “touch someone, to lower the price, to be able to work”.

“If not, we are all still going to the unemployment fund, because there is no company that supports these costs,” he said.

This listening may arise on Monday, since there is a meeting scheduled with the Government that day, in Lisbon, according to Lusa the representative of the movement, the lawyer Miguel Machado Mendes.

“ We received contact from the cabinet of the Minister of Infrastructure and Housing [Miguel Pinto Luz], yesterday [Thursday], noting that he is attentive to our demands and following which a meeting was scheduled, next Monday, in Lisbon ", told Lusa Miguel Machado Mendes.

The march started with more than a hundred vehicles, to demand “concrete responses” to fuel increase.

The representative of the promoters of the initiative estimated today in the place that are expected about half a thousand heavy in this protest, which will join along the way to Coimbra.

According to Miguel Machado Mendes, there are four points of concentration with more vehicles that will join the column, which gives them a “certainty” of half a thousand heavy vehicles on the roads.

“ What these companies are asking is for them to listen to us, to listen to our demands, to accept our requests. We understand that it is a fair fight and that defends the sector ", he added.

The movement, which announced on Wednesday the participation of more than 100 companies and 400 heavy cars, began today the march from that entrance on the highway in the area of Paredes, in the district of Porto.

The protest brings together companies related to the extraction of inerts, transport, land movement and others from the terraplanning sector.

This construction subsector feels “very exposed and vulnerable to the increase in the cost of energy”, namely diesel, which is “a cost of production that means almost 70% of the final price” that companies present to customers.

“ Since 27 February this year, the price of diesel oil in Portugal has increased from EUR 1.59 to EUR 2.22 per litre, an increase of 63 cents per litre,” the promoters of the initiative put into a press release, admitting that this “historical rise” is leading to an “unsustainable scenario”.