Romanian road carriers take to the streets

Thousands of road carriers protest against rising insurance costs and increase in excise duties on fuel.

Roxana Vasile, 11.01.2024, 13:50

With parliamentary, European, presidential and local
elections due to take place this year, social protests are the last thing any
of the ruling parties would want. Recent decisions by the Social Democrats and
the Liberals who are now in government have sparked, however, a lot of
discontent that risks derailing their election plans. Last year saw lots of
strikes and protests from all parts of society and 2024 has itself begun with a
spontaneous protest by road carriers. Thousands of truck drivers drove so slowly
on Wednesday that they almost blocked national roads and ring roads, their main
discontent being the rising cost of insurance policies and the increase in the
excise duty on fuel. Despite a cap, RCA insurance policies are still very high,
with current charges reflecting the bankruptcy of some big insurance companies
in 2022 and 2023. Constantin Dogărescu, one of the protesters:

We are protesting against the state to which the
government has brought us, against the fact that taxes for small and
medium-sized companies have tripled. Taxes going up from 1 to 3%? This has
never happened anywhere in the world. The cost of insurance is very high, we
end up paying 3,200-3,600 euros for a tractor, that’s more than in Germany.

Protesters want the government to issue an emergency
order to cap insurance for trucks at around 1,000 euros and to eliminate
weighing scales at customs, which, they say, are faulty and lead to immense
queues. Road carriers are proposing instead that the weighing should be done after
the western model, that is to say electronically, while the vehicles are in
motion, 10-15 km before reaching the border. The president of the Federation of
the Romanian Road Carriers, Augustin Hagiu, gives further details about their
discontents:

I have not organised this protest, but I am in
constant contact with my colleagues from around the country. We have written to
the ministries, but in vain. We told them about the discriminatory tax
treatment between employees in the private sectors and state employees, but in
vain. We told them that the RO e-Transport system should not be applied to all
international transports, but, like in Poland, Hungary and other states, only
to high-rhythm goods, or risk blocking the economy. They also failed to get us into
Schengen, which means higher costs for us and more drastic border checks. How
long are we suppose to keep it like this?

Wednesday’s protest was also joined by farmers. (CM)