According to Emol, truckers' confederations will meet this Thursday at 16:30 with the undersecretaries of Economy, Karlfranz Koehler, and Finance, Sebastián Vallebona. The meeting will take place at the Ministry of Economy and seeks responses to the diesel price rise, which the associations describe as an "economic crisis".
The organizers are the National Confederation of Truck Owners of Chile (CNDC) and the National Confederation of Freight Transport (CNTC). This Wednesday they released a video to put pressure on the government.
"We need an answer today, not tomorrow," said Macarena Linares, national director of the CNDC. According to Linares, small haulers "can no longer go out to work," and more and more trucks are sitting parked at their owners' homes.
The associations' figures explain the urgency. Filling a 500-liter truck tank cost $475,000 in March and reached $750,000 by October 1. That is an increase of nearly 58%. To give you an idea, it is as if gasoline for your car had risen by more than half in seven months.
With that, diesel would now account for 63% of logistics costs, compared with 40% in March. Linares noted that 93% of the freight moved in Chile travels by land.
What are they asking for? The first measure is a mechanism to pass every fuel price increase on to freight rates. That means the customer hiring the transport service would absorb the change in diesel prices through a mandatory surcharge. Linares said this proposal "has no fiscal cost".
The second concerns the Fuel Price Stabilization Mechanism (Mepco), the system the state uses to smooth fluctuations in international oil prices. It works as a buffer, preventing prices from rising or falling abruptly. The associations want it to operate "effectively".
They also demand a correction to what they call a tax distortion in Mepco's variable component. Anadeska Pincheira, national director of the CNTC and president of Asoducam Valdivia, put that tax surcharge at around $100 per liter. "The fuel price rise is unsustainable," she said.
This Thursday's meeting follows earlier talks. On September 30, both confederations met with Koehler, and the government committed to presenting a proposal within 15 days. That deadline falls around now.
On Tuesday, CNTC president Sergio Pérez spoke privately with President José Antonio Kast at La Moneda. According to Pérez, the president "has instructed his ministers to find a solution".
The associations have warned of possible work stoppages. Pérez qualified this by saying that "it is our members who decide the path forward". A truckers' strike would affect supplies, and higher freight costs could be passed on to product prices, although the sources do not estimate that impact.
Emol also reported that the executive branch was expected to announce measures benefiting haulers this Wednesday afternoon, without specifying their content. Meanwhile, another fuel price rise is forecast for Thursday, October 22.
