The modification of the discipline of waiting times for the loading/unloading of the goods and the deductible introduced with the decree-law Infrastructure approved in recent days by the Italian government at the moment does not seem to have at all surprised the protests of the hauliers at least relative to the additional costs complained for the waiting times in the ports(of 19 May 2025). If the measure deliberated by the executive was generally welcomed positively, with some exceptions, by the category associations of the road haulage(of 20 May 2025), there is no stopping the initiatives of the same representations of companies in the sector to try to cover these costs.

After being introduced for the Ligurian ports and for Porto Marghera, today the associations of the road haulage Anita, Assotir, Cna Fita, Confartigianato Trasporti, Fai and Trasportounito have announced in fact that from the next first July the enterprises of road haulage will apply also to the port of Livorno the "Port Fee", the additional tariff applied as compensation of the charges determined from the operating difficulties caused from the congestion in the ports.

evidence that "the extra costs for the disservices of the harbour operativity will not fall more only on the category", the six associations have announced that, "as a result of various associative comparisons carried out in relation to the continuous operating blocks of the trucks happened in the last months in the port of Livorno and in the last one in the course of an encounter carried out on 27 May 2025 near the local center of the CNA, have taken app harbour that: the loss of economic productivity generated from the disservices of the harbour system and the terminals of the port of Livorno can no longer be supported only from the enterprises of road haulage, but it must be shared from all the supply chain of service to the goods".

The associations have explained that, in light of this, "the enterprises of road haulage have therefore considered that, to protect the economic continuity of the transports in the harbour basin of Livorno, in which they have invested important resources, it is necessary to ask to the enterprises of the supply chain of the services of transport, a responsible sharing to the extra costs generated from the disservices generated from the harbour operativity of the terminals, to the state supported exclusively from the enterprises of the enterprises of road transport. These extra costs are likely to damage the continuity of transport services, the territorial economy and employment, as well as to seriously jeopardize the minimum levels of road safety. The enterprises of road haulage have therefore decided, in respect of the free bargaining between the parts previewed from the norms of field, than from 1 July 2025, for every transport of goods carried out on the routes whose origins/destinations include the harbour basin of Livorno, will apply to the enterprises clients of the transports and for every level of subvection, a "Port Fee" for c.u. journey of a value in line with what already applied in the ports of Genoa and La Spezia. The amount of such compensation will be highlighted in invoice with the following item: "Port Fee loading and/or unloading port of Livorno". This form of compensation will be applied until the normal conditions of complete functionality of the operation of the harbour system and the terminals will be restored".

Meanwhile, the secretary general of Anita, Giuseppina Della Pepa, intervened in hearing at the Commissions gathered VIII Environment and IX Transport of the Chamber of Deputies, as part of the examination on the bill of conversion of the Decree-Law Infrastructures, reaffirming the appreciation of the association with regard to the provision, that to article 4 defines the measures in charge of optimizing the loading and unloading of the goods by means of the reduction of the franchise times and the increase of the compensation. Instruments that, in Anita's opinion, are able to encourage the containment of unproductive times to the advantage of the enterprises of road haulage goods, drivers and the entire logistic system. However, Della Pepa has found that in order to ensure the effectiveness of the measure it would be appropriate to positively assess the inclusion of the recipient of the goods between the subjects co-mandated to the compensation, taking into account that often the overcoming of the deductible time is recorded in the operations of unloading of the goods at destination. Finally, Della Pepa has positively assessed the government's intervention towards payment times, the extension of the maximum number of test plates available to each operator according to the number of employees and the partial restoration of resources related to the fund for the modernization of the vehicular park according to the principle of technological neutrality. The hope highlighted is that there is room to finance the measure with as many resources, so as to restore the full endowment of the Fund for the two-year period 2025-2026.

That, instead, what is laid down by the Decree-Law Infrastructures in the matter of waiting times for the loading/unload of the goods and deductible entails only an aggravation of the situation and the costs has evidenced it Fedespedi, the federation of the Italian shipping companies, in its contribution sent to the Chamber in view of the examination by the Joint Commissions IX Transport and VIII Environment. In its communication Fedespedi has specified that "the prolonged duration of the loading and unloading times of the goods in the terminals is already a known and conclaimed problem that affects all the actors of the distribution chain. In this sense - it has specified the federation - it is shared that it is not correct that the greater cost falls on individual actors of the supply chain, that they are the so-called "weak ring", or the contractual client, that little can affect the change of the mode of execution of the operations in question. In essence, delays complained of by the transporters - it has emphasized Fedespedi - are directly connected with the execution of precise operational phases, at the logistic nodes, and determined by external factors or by organizational inefficiencies of specific rings of the supply chain, that cause a situation of congestion - now not only in times or days of tip - and slow the process, forcing all the actors of the supply chain to reorganize the transport. The problem, therefore, is in a more extensive framework and requires broad solutions - such as the control of performance delivered in the logistics nodes and the role attributed to the authorities assigned to guarantee an optimal level of performance - to be really resolved. Precisely on these last aspects, it is crucial the role of the Authorities of Harbour System, whose regulatory functions can guarantee the optimal functioning of the logistic nodes, the correct fulfillment of the operational activities, the respect of adequate standards of service and at the same time the control of the levels of the supplied performances, preventing and disincentive the organizational inefficiencies".

"As a result - it has still observed Fedespedi - the aggravation of charges laid down by the decree-law Infrastructures: does not solve the problem, because it does not affect the real causes of delays or the really responsible subjects; causes further complications affecting the correct functioning of the stages of international trade carried out by other players in the supply chain; It is limited to insisting on existing measures, which, however, until now have not brought any benefit; inevitably leads to an increase in costs, with a tipping of the same at the expense of the goods, thus weakening the competitiveness of the logistic system to the service of the international trade, without considering that all the rings of the supply chain suffer in the same way the consequences of the disservices; It could result in a depletion of the litigation, because of the increase of the compensation and the new calculation mechanism of the same, also making necessary a revision of the contracts in place to adapt them to the new normative system and foresee adequate precautionary measures".

In his contribution Fedespedi has also dwelt on the additional tariffs introduced from sectors of the road haulage to recover costs for the congestion in the ports noting that the so-called "congestion fee", that recently some transporters are applying in different Italian ports to cope with the persistence of the long waits for the loading and unloading of the goods, involve such aggravation of costs that "do not solve the problems to the base of the citates".

Meanwhile the logistic group Spinelli, that work both harbour terminals and services of road haulage, has sent a communication to the companies of navigation customers in which it announces the suspension of the application of the congestion fee on the empty container in the port of Genoa previewed to start from next Sunday. "Pur maintaining high attention on the evolution of the harbour situation - the group has explained in the communication - we believe that at this moment it is priority to favor a climate of stability and operating continuity. We naturally reserve the right to re-examine the eventual need for re-introduction of the measure if conditions of congestion were to be re-established to generate non-sustainable extra costs for the logistics chain".