The Government approves the decree-law that prohibits loss-making work by carriers
It also gives the green light to a new aid package worth 450 million, with 1,250 euros for heavy vehicles and 500 euros for light vehicles.
The Government fulfilled this Monday, although over the horn, its promise made months ago to the carriers' associations to approve a decree-law before the end of July that would prevent them from working at a loss - which will come into force in the coming days, a Once published in the BOE-, in the image of what he did with the agricultural sector through the reform of the law of the food chain. Likewise, it enabled a new line of direct aid to companies and professionals in the sector endowed with 450 million euros -as a novelty it includes public services of urban or suburban collective buses-, replicating those already established at the end of March in another similar decree (RD-Law 6/2022) in response to the majority follow-up that the last strike called by this group was having at the time and that caused multimillion-dollar losses in various areas.
The new decree to which the Council of Ministers has given the green light includes several provisions so that the price of effective transport covers the individual costs incurred by the professional in the field, in those cases in which the greatest imbalances occur in the negotiation. It also includes obligations to reflect in writing the price of the service and related expenses, that is, the actual individual costs assumed by the carrier. To set these amounts, the structure of items collected in the cost observatory of road freight transport prepared by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma) will be valid.
In this context, a new sanctioning regime is included to guarantee compliance with the previous obligations, with sanctions of up to 4,000 euros. In addition, it is established that the Code of Good Commercial Practices in the contracting of land transport of goods that the ministry and the representatives of the sector will now try to polish also includes commitments for the establishment of maximum levels of subcontracting, as well as the establishment of applicable commitments to contracting through intermediaries that provide transport services through the internet.
In any case, the obligation is included for the Government, after evaluating the effectiveness of all the measures implemented, to present a bill in Parliament within a period of six months reviewing the subcontracting regime in the transport of goods by road.
Bus subsidies
The decree approved this Monday includes a new package of direct aid to freight and passenger land transport companies due to the high dependence on the price of fuel in this "strategic sector", according to the Executive. This line, endowed with more than 450 million euros, will be distributed as follows: heavy goods vehicles, 1,250 euros each; light goods vehicles, 500 euros; buses, 950 euros per vehicle; ambulances, 500 euros; urban buses, 950 euros; taxis and VTC vehicle: 300 euros each.
Regarding transport by train, for railway diesel locomotives, each unit will be subsidized with 15,000 euros and, in addition, there will be a maximum of 1.9 million euros in the cases of public and private companies that operate in this sector.
Lastly, in the field of air transport, the Council of Ministers approved that Aena make a series of investments in technological equipment facilities to support the implementation of the biometric registration of passengers 'entry/exit system'. In principle, it will be installed in airports in November and may cause even more collapses in the controls of passengers from third countries outside the EU. In total, the aerodrome manager will invest some 150 million in new equipment and another 10 million in support staff to avoid even more crowds at its facilities, although its approach is to later revert that cost to the airlines themselves through their fees.
