TRUCKERS moving goods from the Manila North Harbor on Tuesday started their engines that were parked since Friday and resumed work despite the lack of an agreement between their major customers and shipping lines.

Catalino Costales, speaking on behalf of the Alliance of North Harbor Trucking Association—which has about 1,000 members—and three other major groups under its umbrella, said they would resume work but they cannot agree on the terms set by major customers and carriers.

“There’s no schedule yet of when we will meet again,” Costales said on Tuesday, adding that they have started work since Monday so as not to disrupt operations.

The strike stemmed from the inaction of the Supply Chain Management Association of the Philippines (SCMAP) and shipping lines on the truckers’ request for an increase in rates. The association members include conglomerates such as San Miguel Corp. and Nestlé Corp. that need to move cargoes to and from Manila.

Although there was a consensus that the current rate of P5,100 per 20-footer container for a 40-km radius roundtrip should be increased, no rate increase had been agreed upon since the truckers submitted their written request late last year.

A trucking official, who requested not to be named, said truckers were furthered agitated when the Philippine Liner Shipping Association (PLSA) wanted a retention fee of 10 percent from the truckers in exchange for just an 8-percent increase in 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.

According to earlier computations of the group, 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, the retention fee of the PLSA of 10 percent and other costs of about 15 percent.

When the rate is increased to P5,915, or a 16-percent increase over current rates, truckers will have some P4,176.85 to spend on operations.

Since last year, truckers have been grumbling and pushing the need to raise their rates since the customers, mostly member-companies of SCMAP, only allowed them to increase a fraction of the proposed rates in mid-2007.

Member-groups of the alliance are truckers led by Allied Transport Group, Integrated North Harbor Truckers Association and WGA Trucking Association.

NH truckers lift strike, for now

TRUCKERS moving goods from the Manila North Harbor on Tuesday started their engines that were parked since Friday and resumed work despite the lack of an agreement between their major customers and shipping lines.

MARILAO, Bulacan—Support is growing for efforts to rehabilitate one of the world’s most polluted rivers located in this town.

BRUNO Carpentier sits in an office with bars on the windows and two German Shepherds on the roof, counting his losses as wildcat strikes at the Port of Marseille, France’s largest, divert ships to Spain and Italy.