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Topolánek postpones trucking ban

Truckers revoke blockade plans, demand fuel discounts

By František Bouc
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
July 23rd, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Truck drivers are trying to get around weekend bans, or at least to limit them. Czech truckers face the strictest restrictions in the EU.
Prime Minister Mirek Topolánek averted a mounting menace to local roads and highways July 15, preventing a blockade by truckers threatening to protest fuel taxes and a long-discussed year-round ban prohibiting heavy trucks from traveling on local highways on Friday afternoons.
In an effort to avoid the same type of blockades that occurred on French and Spanish roads earlier this summer, Topolánek met with the leaders of Česmad Bohemia, an association representing the interests of the country’s transportation and logistics companies. They agreed to postpone Cabinet discussion on the issue until the end of August, when a proper analysis of the ban can be carried out. In response to Topolánek’s decision, Česmad said no blockades will occur on Czech roads this summer.
Only hours later, however, Environment Minister Martin Bursík, chairman of the coalition Green Party, voiced an even more radical threat: If the government does not introduce the Friday afternoon truck ban, the minority Green Party will leave the Cabinet.
“Trucks cannot run on Czech roads Friday afternoons,” Bursík insisted. “It’s a key issue for the Green Party. We stipulated it to be a part of the ruling coalition’s agreement and we’re not going to step back. Should the [senior coalition Civic Democratic Party] not respect that, they’d have to seek a new coalition partner, because we would leave the Cabinet.”
Topolánek said the postponement of the Cabinet’s talks on the issue did not breach the coalition agreement.
“The agreement clearly says that a year-long weekend ban for trucks would be introduced after a relevant analysis has been carried out,” he said. He also insisted that neither the truckers nor the Green Party could blackmail him.
Four requests
The Transportation Ministry and the Finance Ministry have now been commissioned to carry out an analysis of Česmad’s July 15 requests. The union wants the government to scrap the proposal for a year-round Friday afternoon truck travel ban (currently in force from July to August), introduce discounts on toll payments and fuel tax, and set a definite date for euro adoption.
“The prime minister did not sweep any of the four demands under the carpet and he promised to discuss them,” said Česmad Chairman Vladimír Starosta. When elaborating on Česmad demands, Starosta said discounts on toll payments were common in Europe.
As for the discount on fuel tax, Starosta pointed out that fuel tax in the Czech Republic is higher than the minimum EU tax of 302 euros ($480/7,012 Kč) per 1,000 liters of diesel. The reason, Starosta said, was that the minimum tax was calculated last October. Since then, however, the crown significantly strengthened. As a result, local truckers now pay about 1.50 Kč ($0.10) more per liter of diesel. Starosta also argued that the number of fatalities caused by heavy trucks on Czech roads decreased last year, so extending of the summer travel ban to the entire year was unsubstantiated.
As in most European countries, heavy trucks cannot drive on Czech roads Sundays year-round. During the summer, from July 1 to Aug. 31, the law also prohibits vehicles weighing more than 7.5 metric tons (8.3 short tons) from traveling on state highways during Friday, Saturday, Sunday and holiday peak traffic hours.
While a more lenient law regulating Saturday and Sunday travel previously existed, the government extended the ban to Fridays in 2005 in an effort to lower the high rate of weekend car accidents.
The Czech Republic’s extensive trucking regulation is an oddity in Europe. Apart from Sundays, other travel bans have not been put in place anywhere else in Europe, though Austria regulates truck traffic on Friday and Saturday nights.
A current proposal on the EU level would see trucks banned from Saturday 10 p.m. to Sunday 10 p.m. During the summer, the ban would begin at 7 a.m. Saturday.

František Bouc can be reached at fbouc@praguepost.com


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