Salvini is negotiating with lorry drivers, but the south remains paralysed. And lorry drivers are divided

Minister Matteo Salvini must be having more than a few headaches. The day after meeting with lorry drivers and promising to release up to one billion euros in support, half of Italy is still at a standstill. All the major organisations that attended yesterday’s meeting in Milan say they are satisfied with the outcome, but those who organised the protests in the southern regions – the real driving force behind the blockade – remain completely out of control. “For the first time, Calabria is at the forefront; this has never happened before in the history of road haulage in this region,” Mario Pansini, regional coordinator of Fedralog – the regional federation for logistics and road haulage, which is spearheading the protest – tells Il Foglio. “We’re exhausted, but things are starting to move,” he adds. Evidently not enough, given that they are threatening to continue until the 27th. Next Tuesday, Salvini will once again meet with the diverse world of heavy goods transport – from the smallest to the largest organisations – to try to provide more convincing answers. But another week of roadblocks could mean even emptier shelves in the south and problems in the north, where, paradoxically, no one is on strike. Starting from the southern tip of the country, the distance in kilometres to reach destinations drives up transport costs. While in the north there are other modes of freight transport available, in the south road haulage predominates, with smaller companies that are less well-organised, including from a financial perspective. “It’s unlikely that things would be done here in the north as they are in the south, even though the difficulties are identical,” says Eugenio Zaninoni, president of the COAP consortium – which brings together around ninety road haulage companies – speaking with a Piacenza accent. Zaninoni, however, does not bring up the classic cliché about southerners’ alleged lack of work ethic. “The problem is that here we wait for the trade unions to call a strike and nobody organises themselves, whilst in the southern regions there are other unions that have shown themselves to be more determined. I’d be ready to go on strike if a protest were to start here too.” There’s no doubt that high diesel prices are eating into profit margins in Emilia-Romagna as well: “It’s impossible to carry on with costs like this; we can’t pass everything on to the clients, and at this rate we’ll all go bust.”

Yet all the major road hauliers’ associations registered with the Register are urging people to remain calm. “There are problems for all companies, but it’s a long way from there to bringing the country to its knees by blocking the supply of medicines, agricultural produce and other essential goods: a sense of responsibility is needed; we recognise the hardship, but these methods are not our way,” Giuseppina Della Pepa, general secretary of Confindustria’s National Association of Road Transport Companies (Anita), tells Il Foglio. Together with a long list of other associations – Assotir, Cna Fita, Confartigianato Trasporti, Confcooperative, Fai, Fedit, Fiap, Legacoop Produzione e Servizi, Unatras, Assotir and Sna Casartigiani – Anita is calling for “urgent, decisive and immediate action by Minister Piantedosi to remove the roadblocks that have been paralysing the south for days”. In practice, this means passing the buck to the Home Office to restore public order. According to Della Pepa, the demands of today’s protesters are unachievable: “We must consider the context and the system of which we are part: demanding a price cap of 1.40 euros per litre of diesel is impossible today. Anyone who thinks they can achieve the impossible by standing in the way is mistaken.” For Anita, the issue also affects members based in the southern regions, who, according to Della Pepa, are “victims of the protesters” because “with the blockade, they are not generating any revenue and are racking up loss after loss”. In short, this is damaging to the sector itself. The road haulage sector has faced numerous challenges in recent years. Price rises also affect the cost of lorry maintenance, the shortage of drivers and, not least, fuel. Most road haulage companies refuel outside the urban and motorway networks at their own depots, which have always offered more affordable prices; yet today they find themselves paying more than motorists do at petrol stations applying the voluntary price cap, such as Eni, Total, Ip and Q8. “We have highlighted to Minister Salvini the need to persuade the oil companies to extend the price cap to off-network stations,” says Della Pepa, who is hoping that the next meeting will address the outstanding issues. In the meantime, however, he is calling for an end to the protest. “Those who have the power to bring the country to a standstill must act more responsibly,” is the message to his colleagues. For the time being, however, they are not willing to consider mediation.