EU Truck Drivers on Fuel Strike.

[Wintermute]

Spanish Truck drivers seem to have had enough and have gone on strike as of today and the rest of the EU seems poised to follow.

Even Fishing Trawlers are joining in protest of rising Diesel prices.

BBC Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7443257.stm

Extracts:

Tens of thousands of Spanish lorry drivers have begun an indefinite strike over the soaring price of diesel, which has risen by 20% this year.

After stopping work at midnight, many disrupted traffic at one of the border crossings between Spain and France.

French fishermen from Mediterranean ports have, meanwhile, joined fleets from other French ports in suspending their action pending an EU summit in Brussels later this month.

-----

Overnight, about 200 lorry drivers parked their vehicles beside roadside toll booths in the Catalonian town of La Jonquera, close to the border with France.

The protesters prevented other lorries from passing, and caused delays to car traffic.

Hundreds of lorry drivers also staged "snail protests" on the ring roads around the capital, Madrid, and Barcelona. There have also been protests in the Basque country and Valencia.

Most of the 90,000 hauliers participating in the strike are self-employed, or working for small and medium-sized haulage companies, and they have warned that many supermarkets will run out of goods within days. Petrol supplies may also be disrupted.

We are the ones who move the goods that this country needs to keep working," the head of the transport association federation Fenadismer, Julio Villascusa, told Cadena SER radio.

"If we stop because we haven't got the money to buy fuel then the country will stop."

The president of another drivers' trade union, Adetec, said many of its small-scale hauliers were going bankrupt.

"We have no more solutions. We can't afford diesel any more. It's as simple as that," Jean-Claude Ferrand told Spanish national radio.

The lorry drivers are receiving support from counterparts in Portugal and southern France, who also disrupted the flow of traffic along one of the main routes into Spain.

Their strike follows action by hauliers in France and other European countries. They are following the lead of Spanish and French fishermen, many of whom have been on strike because of the soaring price of fuel.

The fishermen have said they will go out of business unless the EU allows national governments to give them more financial aid and subsidise maritime diesel.

However, the EU has insisted that any fuel subsidies would be illegal under European law and unsustainable in the long term.

EU rules state that the value-added tax (VAT) rate on fuel cannot be less than 15%. Member states are free to set VAT rates at or above that minimum.

Local Petrol Stations have already run out of Diesel. The only Station who had any left was a local Morrisons and the queue circled the entire Parking area.

Not seen Spanish news today so can't comment on what they're saying.

Going to be an interesting spectacle.

[CMMeast]

It was only a matter of time before this happened. Stuff is really going to go down when the big shipping companies start rumbling.

[ferigor]

I think this is awesome.... Not as a consumer, but as someone who works in the trucking industry. (I don't live in EU, but I feel the need to comment anyway).

Trucking is a rapidly dying industry and the ever increasing fuel costs are really hurting it. Not only are fuel prices hurting us, but no one is willing to pay an increased rate on loads and the drivers can not afford to haul at the rates we used to. (When you are looking at spending ~1$ per mile in fuel, it is really hard to find profit in the load for everyone involved).

A strike like this is something that I would love to see happen in the US and draw attention to the plight of the industry. I am constantly seeing driver's and smaller trucking companies crumble with the state of the economy right now, and I don't think its long before the larger companies follow suit (My company serves 49 states and Canada and has a fleet of ~400 trucks and we're starting to notice the cut backs. They have closed 2 terminals down and we have more tractors/trailers in the yard than I've seen since I've been here).

"If we stop because we haven't got the money to buy fuel then the country will stop."

qft

I really hope that something like this takes flight in the US, will be a major shock to the nation (Plus, the driver's that always talk about this shit will finally shut up). I mean, it'll suck balls because we'll be running out of shit left and right, but it might be the wake up call that the US/World needs. I don't mean to sound preachy or anything, I hope its not coming off that way. I also hope this was semi-coherrent, its been a long day...

Also, no, I do not drive truck (Everyone always asks that when I talk about working in trucking).

[Wintermute]

I was originally going to post it in the Gas Prices thread in Spam but I figured that it might get a better reception/discussion in general.

We're already seeing the effects here in Gibraltar.

Spaniards from just over the Border in La Linea along with locals have already swarmed and sucked the Diesel out of the pumps earlier today.
Business being what they are have likely already started gouging their prices.

Spaniards coming over to buy Petrol/Diesel is nothing new but if the pumps are dry then it's cause for worry. I'm betting it's not only the regular commuters either, there's a few people in La Linea who earn their living on Fishing Trawlers who've probably come over to fill up.

Spanish Pumps nearby should also be feeling the effects within the next few days.

I'm actually more interested in who's purchased because they need it and who's panicked and filled up in fear.
Then there's also the people who like to stockpile resources.

What the Driver said is right too. It'll be interesting to see the effects of a strike of this scale, but I can't say I'll be happy to be affected by it. A lot of commerce will be affected both directly and indirectly.
Hell, the border queues and traffic congestion was supposedly huge and a lot of my co-workers commute from Spain.

Most interesting part of the article was this though:

However, Spain's largest hauliers' trade union is not taking part.

[Obev]

[bigot]What, you expected Spaniards to muster enough effort to start a strike? Yes, Spain, the country where they're too lazy to actively do nothing.[/bigot]

[Wintermute]

[bigot]What, you expected Spaniards to muster enough effort to start a strike? Yes, Spain, the country where they're too lazy to actively do nothing.[/bigot]

Looks like someone's been to Spain on Holiday and forgot about the daily Siesta.

Nothing like visiting the main street mid-afternoon only to find everything's closed until early evening.

[pohibaba]

It seems, almost, as if this were a scene from an Ayn Rand novel.