The hauliers' no to the request for shippers' representatives to renounce the introduction of congestion fees announced by transport associations on way to partially offset their costs caused by the congestion of operations to and from the port of Genoa is was greeted with disappointment by Spediporto, the association that represents the Genoese shipping houses ( of 29 May and 10 June 2024).

Regret that, weighing the director's latest statements General of Spediporto, Giampaolo Botta, seems to resemble a clear envy for a category, that of road hauliers, which may decide to introduce a surcharge to cover costs extraordinary. Possibility that for Genoese freight forwarders is not allowed. It doesn't matter to a truck if it has to operate with the port of La Spezia rather than that of Genoa. For a Genoese freight forwarder, the field of operation is often more limited.

"The surcharge demanded by road haulage - he denounced Botta - it's just a way to penalize and remove the goods from Genoa and those who, like the shippers, pay On a daily basis, I pay a very high price for the deficiencies of the system." A very high bill for the deficiencies of the system that, in fact, road hauliers complain that it is also and above all charged to they.

"From Milan," said Botta, "we are receiving news of companies that are organizing themselves with intermodal services on the port of La Spezia to circumvent this surcharge. It's obvious, therefore, the damage that would be done to the entire port of Genoa; And let's not forget that it's up to the freight forwarders compete with competitors and international markets." What the director of Spediporto complains about seems to be the historical lack of contractual weapons, of which the category of freight forwarders can avail you to enforce your rights. A weapon to which, with their no, the associations It seems that they do not intend to give up.

For Spediporto, however, the discontent of hauliers is excessive: "the port of Genoa - he said again Botta - does not suffer from a daily congestion situation. Problems of this kind have occurred only in a few days of the week and on specific terminals for some ships in arrival. It is unfair, therefore, to apply a surcharge that does not on certified situations of congestion or difficulties'.

For Botta it is possible to solve these congestions, considered occasional, with a prudent and informed planning of the Travel. A solution proposed repeatedly in recent decades by the Genoese Association of Freight Forwarders, which clashes with A logistics that is increasingly just-in-time. "Of course - explained the general manager of Spediporto - is It is possible to know what the days to be red and black sticker; It would, therefore, be much simpler and It is less penalizing for the port to limit arrivals to a certain number of of vehicles that can actually be serviced, introducing Maybe in this context an "additional equity". An alternative could also be to extend the allowances for parking and container detention, so as to allow a collection of the containers themselves concentrated not only in the two days after the ship disembarked but, more correctly, throughout the week. Cost-related issues road transport systems do not arise with the congestion of these but they are a complex issue, which has been on the table for some time, and subject to commercial negotiation; I think, with just as much frankness, which must also be addressed in the light of an important change of gear, called upon to manage with increasing frequency of traffic peaks and moments of absolute operational vacuum'. Ups and downs that road transport has always been subjected to it adapts because it is - as Spediporto well knows - that it is the goods.

According to the freight forwarders' association, this is not lawful then compare the surcharges applied by the shipping companies with the one requested by the hauliers, which in any case is considered excessive in relation to the damage complained of: 'The comparison with freight rates - Botta pointed out - it doesn't hold up. If we were to parameterize the value of time and distance at which report the €180 required by road transport for waiting for two hours in port, with the transit times of the ships, their costs of management, it should be normal to wait for sea freight rates at four zeros'.

According to Botta, "decisive action is needed Port System Authority that convenes at the latest soon all the parties involved in a single round table comparison'.