100,000 euros per day for the regional public transport sector
“The record escalation in the prices of automotive fuels is bringing to their knees the Emilia-Romagna passenger transport companies operating in tourism and in local public transport. These are activities already heavily penalized by the pandemic that has interrupted and reduced tourist flows “. This was denounced by craftsmen Davide Missiroli, coordinator of CAIPET Emilia-Romagna, the regional committee of associations of passenger transport companies that operate the single regional companies of ANAV, CNA, Conf Imprese, Confcooperative Produzione e Lavoro e Servizi, Legacoop Produzione e Servizi .
“We are talking about an increase of 56% in just two days, to which must be added the fuel increase of the last period” continues Missiroli, underlining how “all this weighs heavily on businesses”. “Neither the post-Covid recovery of economic activities, nor the catastrophic events of recent days can honor such increases. The hysteria that characterizes this phase of the market has made prices so high as to make evident a financial speculation to the detriment of businesses and citizens, to which the Government must take immediate action. We must all take note of the extraordinary nature of the situation and not face it with traditional methods ”. The impact of the increase in fuel – explain from CAIPET Emilia-Romagna – is so penalizing for a sector such as that of passenger transport, already hit hard by the pandemic crisis, that it will not only be discharged on the profit margins of each company, but every it will lead to a negative margin per km traveled, especially on bus companies that operate in subcontracting in TPL services.
“The repercussions of the expensive fuel on the whole regional LPT sector – points out the coordinator Davide Missiroli – lead to an increase in daily costs equal to 100,000 euros per day. In one month we are talking about 3 million euros of additional costs, completely unsustainable for businesses “. Already today many private companies, hard hit by the Covid crisis, are unable to sustain themselves financially so as not to be able to comply with their contractual obligations. “If these conditions continue – warns Missiroli – a bus stop is imminent with the cutting of lines and runs for workers and students due to lack of fuel”.
For these reasons, the regional passenger transport associations coordinated by CAIPET Emilia-Romagna (ANAV, CNA, Confartigianato, Confcooperative Lavoro e Servizi, Legacoop Produzione e Servizi) refer to the regional councilor for transport Andrea Corsini who interprets the strong discomfort of companies, looking for solutions, also finding agreements with public companies entrusted and working in the State-Region tables to put in place tools that can cut the serious repercussions deriving from this tension on prices which, moreover, sees no respite in the short term. “A concrete and immediately feasible proposal – concludes Missiroli – could be to intervene with the complete recovery of excise duties on professional fuel. The excise duty has always been the majority part of the fuel price. The temporary excise duty applied on petrol and diesel cuts would at least allow the continuation of public transport services “.