The Association of Fuel Transportation Companies (ATC) reached an agreement with the government and the expected situation of fuel shortages at service stations in Uruguay as of the early hours of the weekend, it will ultimately not happen.
With the agreement and the lifting of the strike by the transport union, fuel distribution will work normally.
The president of the A.National Administration of Fuels, Alcohol and Portland (Ancap), Alejandro Stipanicic, had warned that, in the face of measures of force Announced by the ATC, that the shortage of fuel in the dispensers could become noticeable as of Friday night or Saturday morning, while the dispatch had already been non-existent on Thursday and on Friday itself.
However, the union managed to agree on a 40% increase in freight value received by the companies that transport the fuel from the Ancap plant to the service stations, as of April 1. So the strike was lifted and the distribution was not affected.
What did the carriers claim?
The increase demanded by the carriers union —and which, finally, they agreed to— was due to a rate scheme that had no changes since 2016. The value of the freight contributes to a great extent to cover the expenses of the service: fuel, truck, repair and maintenance, and salaries of the drivers —who earn partly a salary with a fixed wage and, in addition, partly for productivity.
As there have been no increases since 2016, workers saw their income significantly behind with respect to the expenses that had increased in the last seven years.
The impact on the price of fuel
This 40% increase in freight value supposes the payment of around 20 cents more per liter of fuel, although the Ministry of Industry, Energy and Mining (MIEM) It did not specify whether this cost will be added to the final price charged to users at service stations.
This will be a decision that the Executive Power will take “according to the PPI (Import Parity Price) and Ancap’s report,” said Undersecretary for Industry Walter Verri.
The Regulatory Unit for Energy and Water Services (Ursea) will close its PPI measurement today, and will take a few days to prepare the report that the government will take as a basis to determine the value of fuel during April. However, from the MIEM they advanced that “if there is an incidence, it is very low.”
Source: Ambito
