New leaders, late claims

The New Year brought new protests, and this time, the passenger transporters were the vanguard. But there are also claims coming from the freight transporters, mainly unchanged from those last year, which remained unsolved after the elections, when new political leaders took office in the Ministry of Transports and subordinated authorities. Yet both passenger and freight transporters’ claims come as a surprise because of their quiet tone.

Despite the new bosses, bureaucratic slowness remained the same, so after more than a month of sharing government functions, there was still no drafted budget. Unfortunately, transporters’ associations gave no evidence of efficacy either: no earlier than late January they decided to ask for some anti-crisis measures, more than likely too late to include better “treatments” for transporters in the budget. An important opportunity to obtain concessions was missed and it is very likely that any new negotiations be carried on several months, with shrugging shoulders because no one can alter calculations of revenue and public expenditure.

However the most important aid could not come through direct support addressed to the transport sector, but through measures aimed at industry’s recovery. Because without working factories, less consumption driven imports, and almost no freight, any measure aimed at helping transporters is in the end useless.