Truckers launch indefinite strike but spare essential commodities

Protesting the daily change in the price of diesel and “100% increase in third party insurance premium every year”, truck operators across the country launched a nationwide indefinite strike on Monday.

The strike has been called by the All India Confederation of Goods Vehicle Owners' Associations (ACOGOA). Transportation of essential goods and commodities such as vegetables, milk, medicines, etc will not be disrupted, ACOGOA has assured. The strike as a result will hit industries the most. Over 50 lakh trucks, according to ACOGOA will be off road from Monday.

ACOGOA says there are three main reasons for the protest:

• Ever increasing diesel prices,
• Sharp rise in third-party insurance premium, and
• Hike in toll prices across states

The government’s claim that increased fuel prices are due to international rate of crude oil is rubbished by B Channa Reddy, president of ACOGOA. “When crude oil prices were as high as $105 per barrel, we were paying ₹52 for one litre of diesel. And when it touched $64 per barrel, we were paying around ₹68 per litre for diesel,” said Bangalore-based Reddy to National Herald.

The daily fluctuation in fuel price is frustrating, says Rajinder Singh—the general secretary of ACOGOA. “Imagine a driver who starts from Chennai for Guwahati. The travel time for a loaded truck between these two cities is 10 days. The client has to pay for the diesel prices and he pays pays the driver as per the rate of diesel on the particular day when he is leaving for Guwahati. The very next day, the government increases the price by some 30 paisa, and follows it up with a hike of 25 paisa next day, thus upsetting the cost and the budget,” he explains.

There have been instances where over the period of the journey, the diesel price has increased by ₹3, Singh claims. “ Is it possible for the driver to drive back to the client and ask him for a revised fare?”

A letter to the Prime Minister on April 23, 2018, ACOGOA and copied to the Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Finance Ministry and IRDA, yielded no response from anyone, they complain

There has also been a massive increase in third-party insurance premium, which has gone up from ₹320 in 2002 to ₹48,000 in 2018.

“They have targeted the heavy-load vehicles,” says Reddy. If he is to be believed, “such drastic rise has only taken place for vehicles that carry more than 7,500 kg and above. They are increasing the premium for heavy-load vehicles by more than 100% every year while they are being liberal to all others including the corporates.” “We have vehicles that carry 7,000 kg to 40,000 kg depending on the material we are carrying,” he informs.

From 29,73,740 registered Goods Vehicles in 2002, the number increased to 93,44,464 in 2015, according to Motor Vehicles Statistical Year Book for 2002 and 2017 respectively.

Many in ACOGOA said that they even attempted to sort the issue out with Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) but failed. A delegation of 18 members from across the country travelled to Hyderabad in the first week of April but failed to break the ice.

Several calls by NH to the IRDA head office went unanswered. The Delhi office of IRDA hung up the phone after saying, “we don’t know anything about it. It’s the head office that takes decisions on prices.”

Thirdly, informs Kausar Hussain, “toll waale manmani karte hain” (toll people behave arbitrarily). The government had promised that no toll would have to be paid after implementation of the GST, but the fact is that the rates at toll plazas have gone up. The truckers were left with no option but to go off the roads, they maintained.