Tension is rising again around the application of the rule on demurrage and waiting times for truck /unloading introduced by the Government’s latest Infrastructure Decree.
Following the positions taken by the road haulage industry in recent weeks, which called on the sector to demand strict application of the regulation providing for the payment of 100 euros per hour to the haulier for waiting times exceeding 90 minutes, some of the main client associations have now responded.
The interpretation put forward by the intervening road haulage associations “tends to provide a reading and application of the rule that is not acceptable, especially concerning the attempt to also include the times (and the consequent methods) of loading and unloading operations within the demurrage. The looming danger is confusion and the emergence of disputes that damage the logistics supply chain instead of promoting its efficiency while respecting all its subjects, including hauliers. It is regrettable to note how complex it always is to broaden the consensus base on these initiatives that aim to focus on the merits of the problems and not on distinctions of a different kind, but we are moving forward to protect our companies, convinced that the system must be based on the clarity of the rules and not on conflict” they wrote in a note from Ancip (association of port companies), Assiterminal (port terminals), Assologistica (logistics companies), Confitarma (shipowners) and Fedespedi (freight forwarders).
Separately, the associations have turned to the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, citing “the emergence of widespread problems in every logistics context due to a non-unique interpretation and differing indications for the application of the rule, from which disputes arise, discrepancies in behavior, slowdowns in operational activities and prejudice in the relationships between the different actors in the supply chain”.
Hence the request for ministerial intervention: “We need, each in relation to our own area of representation, an intervention by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport aimed at ensuring a uniform application in compliance with the principles of efficiency and collaboration that characterize the relationships between industry, transport and logistics. We therefore hereby request the urgent opening of a discussion table or the start of a concrete dialogue aimed at determining the identification of correct application guidelines for the rule”.
Clarifications would also be needed regarding representation on the matter. The intervening client associations, from a confederal point of view, report to Confindustria or Confetra. But while the road haulage association of the former, Anita, does not appear to have taken a position on the rule, Trasportounito, a member of Confetra, has done so instead and at the forefront. On the Confcommercio-Conftrasporto front, the main road haulage association, Fai, has not expressed itself, but Assotir has (at least at a local level). Among the client associations, Assarmatori, Federagenti (which is also a member of Confetra) and Fise Uniport have remained silent, while Federlogistica has taken a position, but on the road haulage front (even though internally, within Conftrasporto, it is affiliated with client associations such as Uniport or Assocostieri).
