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Survival in the sun

19th November 2009
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The volume of work transported by Portuguese hauliers is down almost a fifth this year compared with 2008. CM discovers that life is not all sunshine for operators in Portugal.

co: ndr1 tieth:Q■ data t..cifrie-Mai le of duey "THIS IS ONE OF THE most serious situations we have ever faced." admitted Antanio Mousinho, chairman of Portugal's national haulage association (ANTRAM), last month.

Similar to other industries in the global recession, the haulage industry in Portugal and its trade unions and professional associations are fixated on simple survival.

A little over a year ago, truckers in Portugal wreaked havoc after they refused to supply fuel stations and replenish supermarkets in protest against what they regarded as the unscrupulous antics of fuel firms, which kept hiking fuel prices when international oil prices were doing the exact opposite.

The mayhem was such that only major concessions by the government at the time halted widespread panic. It promised a full investigation which has since concluded there was no wrongdoing on the part of the fuel companies.

However, June 2008 is now a distant memory, and the power wielded by truckers then is almost irrelevant.

Figures posted by the National Statistics Office in Portugal show that its haulage companies carried 18.3% less tonnage during the first quarter of 2009 compared with the equivalent period 12 months earlier.

However, it was still an improvement on the drop recorded at the end of 2008, when the industry suffered a 26.1% yearon-year reduction in business Given this weakness, industrial action to push the government into tax concessions or subsidies is unlikely it would probably leave some drivers jobless.

Substantiating the Mousinho view is Geovanni Rosa. Nearing his 50th birthday. he recently lost his job with a Brit

ish chemical transport firm that had sought to infiltrate southern European markets. He says his family is now seeing a lot more of him. "1 used to travel as far afield as Italy and I earned as much as €3,500 3,12l) a month."

But since losing his job, he has had to sell the townhouse he purchased only three years ago in a wealthy area of the Algarve and has downsized to an apartment. "At least it's a home," Rosa says.

Tough times ahead

He is now working part-time and, while he remains hopeful of bouncing back to more prosperous times, he warns: "I am hearing this in Portugal. Spain and Italy: and everyone is sensing that the next six months, irrespective of what statisticians are saying, will be some of the hardest times the transport industry has faced since the start of this crisis."

Other, more fortunate, drivers are just happy to have work to do.

It's late October and the mercury has climbed close to 30 degrees Celsius. Armando Alcaria is smiling as he exits his truck for a final delivery in the Algarve's capital of Faro, perspiring profusely.

Earning €1200 (L1,070) a month and working five or six days a week does not seem to faze the 54-year-old driver, who gave up being a mechanic six years ago to ply his trade in the haulage business.

Alcaria accepts the reality of the economic crisis, which, he says, has seen his employer cut the number of permanent workers at its regional headquarters to just three. "I'm just happy I have a job, and while it does not pay a great deal, it's enough," he argues. "Competition for business is much greater now than what it was a year ago, so we take what we can get, and work whenever there is a delivery to do."

The enlargement of the European Union opened the doors to competition from Romanian and Bulgarian drivers who were willing to work for less than their Portuguese counterparts.

"Most foreign drivers have left," says Alcaria, "some have stayed, but they have their own market."

He suggests drivers from Eastern Europe are delivering from their own countries rather than competing headto-head with Portuguese drivers.

More positive Closer to the Spanish border, at a fuel stop outside Tavira. another driver is, if anything, more positive about the situation of the Portuguese profession.

Marco Duarte, travelling from Torres Vedras (located about 50km north of Lisbon) through to Spain via Portimaio in the Algarve, similarly expresses job satisfaction, despite admitting often being put to a heavy work schedule.

Working 45 hours a week, Duarte appears boastful when he announces his wage packet amounts to C1,500 (£1,338) each month almost €600 (£535) more than the average Portuguese worker can expect to earn.

In his early 30s, Duarte says he worked as much as he was allowed to, but is content with his current employment, despite the lure of hopping across the border to Spain to earn "at least €2,00C (£1,784) for working similar hours'?

As for the competence of Portuguese drivers versus what are often perceived to be their more illustrious counterparts in northern Europe. Duarte believes drivers here are as well-equipped as anyone to do their job. He highlights the legislation tabled in the Portuguese parliament that will require drivers to undergo more stringent training before taking the wheel. In addition, drivers will have to undergo 'constant training', although enforcement remains a doubt among truckers and their union representatives But the underlying concern for drivers and their bosses remains surviving the recession.

While statistics suggest the situation is improving, ANTRAM's Mousinho believes 15.000 vehicles are largely stationary due to a shortage of demand a third of the nation's entire fleet of trucks. •


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