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TRUCKERS
of Manila North Harbor, the country’s biggest domestic
port, declared a holiday on Friday after the port’s main
customers, distribution managers and shipping lines
“ignored” recent requests for an increase in rates.
The
Alliance of North Harbor Trucking Association (ANHTA),
which has about 1,000 members and three other major
groups under its umbrella, said continuing to service
customers without the necessary adjustments would only
bloat their revenue losses.
Authorities have yet to give estimates of the damage of
the strike or say whether it interrupted the movement of
cargo, while officials of both PLSA and SCMAP could not
be reached for comment.
Truckers
led by Allied Transport Group, Integrated North Harbor
Truckers Association and WGA Trucking
Association—collectively known as ANHTA—said they are
determined to go on with their trucking holiday until
their customers, led by Supply Chain Management
Association of the Philippines (SCMAP) and the
Philippine Liner Shipping Association (PLSA), agree to
their proposal to increase their rates by about 16
percent.
“They [SCMAP
and PLSA] will allow you to increase your rates but will
ask for a retention fee higher than the increase.
Instead of benefiting from the increase, we will be
spending more to comply with the retention fee or we
could not get any cargo from the lines,” an official of
the truckers’ group explained.
The
official, who requested not to be named in order not to
anger the other parties, said the proposal of SCMAP and
PLSA provides only for an 8-percent increase but a
retention fee of 10 percent for carriers, a measure that
is seen to wipe out the gains made in raising the rates.
Shipping
lines normally ask for a retention fee as payment of the
cargo given to truckers since the deal does not involve
bidding procedures.
“Unless
they agree to our proposal to increase our rates by 16
percent, we will continue to park our trucks and would
not accept any shipments from them,” the group said.
The
official, however, said they are amenable to the PLSA’s
and SCMAP’s proposed 8-percent increase, but carriers
will have to junk the 10- percent retention fee, and
there will be talks of when the remaining 8-percent
increase would be implemented.
Truckers
were supposed to raise their rates on April 16 from
P5,100 to P5,915 per 20-footer container for a 40-km
radius roundtrip. SCMAP and PLSA, however, did not
agree to the truckers’ proposed rates and instead gave a
proposal to increase the rates to P5,615 for each
20-footer within the 40-km radius roundtrip.
From the
earlier calculations provided by the carriers, liners
will get about P475 as retention fee, while truckers get
a P375 share. The remaining P100 will have to be
shouldered by the truckers to pay the retention fee from
lines.
According to computations, at the current rate of P5,100
per 20-footer container, truckers will only have some
P3,665.11 to spend for operations and the remaining
amount will have to go to value-added tax of 12 percent,
retention of PLSA of 10 percent, and other costs of
about 15 percent.
When the
rate is increased, truckers will have some P4,176.85 to
spend, which has been checked by the liner and the
distribution managers groups.
Since
last year, truckers have been asking to raise their
rates since the customers, mostly the member companies
of SCMAP, only allowed them to increase a fraction of
the proposed rates in mid- 2007.
In
earlier interviews, SCMAP and PLSA said they are
amenable to increases as a result of rising cost of fuel
and spare parts. But after months of discussions, the
groups have given nothing to the truckers.
SCMAP,
whose members are in the food business and other
consumer goods, are wary of increases in logistical
costs as this may jack up their prices. |
