The recent ruling of the High Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands (TSJB), which forces to count as hours of presence the time a driver spends on the ferry to the islands, has generated strong concern in the freight transport sector.
“It has blown up in our face,” warns José Raya, president of the Pimeef Transport Association and owner of Punkytrans.
“All our lives this has been paid in one way and now, according to this sentence, we have to pay it in another,” Raya explains to La Voz de Ibiza. In his opinion, this change in judicial criteria would jeopardize the economic viability of many companies: “This could lead to the ruin of many companies“.
Raya calculates that, if this measure were to be applied across the board, the wage cost of a driver could double.
“We’re talking about 12 hours each day: six there and six back. We have calculated that maybe it will double. We are on a salary of around 3,000 euros, so imagine if it goes to 6,000 plus social security. With this sentence, maybe we are at 5,000 and something per driver, so we would go to about 9,000 or 9,000 and some euros of expenditure of a driver, “he explains.
Faced with this increase, the only way the sector sees would be to pass on the increase to the price of goods. “How do you pay double? By passing it on to the merchandise, you have no choice,” he laments.
“Call effect”.
The employer fears that “everyone is going to claim” and that he should be paid for these hours retroactively.
“The problem is that, for example, people can claim, but we cannot claim anything from the client. I don’t know where this money has to come from. One thing is that they tell you ‘from now on instead of paying 8 hours you have to pay 12’. There is no problem: you pay for 12 hours and you pass on the price. The problem is if you have to pay for the previous hours that have not been charged,” he explains.
Along these lines, he warns that the current margins for transportation are very low: “We move with profits of 2 to 4 % all the companies in Spain. The margin is ridiculous, this is changing money. Well, now think that a lot of drivers tell you that you have to pay this amount of money that you have not been paid. This puts the viability of the companies at risk. This can lead to the ruin of many companies”.
Raya gives as an example a “company that has 50 drivers and everyone makes claims of 20 or 25 thousand euros. There is no human way of being able to pay it. That company is going to go bankrupt”.
“No one understands how this is now presence time.”
Pimeef has already requested a legal report from the national Federation and an urgent meeting with the Ministry of Transport.
Raya insists that this situation contradicts the historical practice of the sector: “I have been with my company for 31 years, and this has always been a time of rest“.
That’s why he insists that the drivers don’t do any work during the crossing, beyond loading the truck onto the ship: “The driver puts the truck on top of the ship and goes to the cabin to take a shower, have dinner and sleep. This has always been treated as a rest. All my life, I’m talking about 31 years that I’ve been there, but even further back, the time a driver spends on the ship has always been treated as a rest”.
“The driver is standing, he is in a cabin, much better even than out there on the road, with the danger of being robbed, being held up or whatever happens to you. We do not understand how a judge can say that he is working when he is really resting. And so this is what we want to refute a little with this issue,” he said.
Direct to costs
For Raya, there is no possible alternative: if you have to start paying for the hours on top of the ferry as a presence, this will inevitably be passed on to the costs of the goods arriving in Ibiza.
“You have no choice,” he maintains.
Although he warns that “if you go to a client and tell him that you are going to raise prices by 20% because this has happened, he says ‘go ahead, go home and don’t come back here’. Because the truth is that the street is very bad for raising prices. Everyone is up in arms about this issue.
A viable alternative?
One of the possible solutions proposed by the sector is to ship trucks without drivers, so that they can take their real rest at home. Raya sees it clearly: “This is what it should be: that the trucks go alone and the driver is not on board“.
However, he insists that this ruling breaks with all the common sense and logic of the sector: “The driver is the first one who is clear that those hours are for rest. Now a sentence like this comes out and leaves us all speechless”.
