Lionel Gougelot 7:20 a.m., January 31, 2024

Territorial intelligence services identified nearly 120 blockage points on Tuesday, with 12,000 farmers mobilized and more than 6,000 tractors nationally. A situation which disrupts the work of carriers who could be brought to their knees with this crisis. The National Road Transport Federation is sounding the alarm. 

After the disruptions linked to the snow, transport companies have been hit hard by farmers' blockages on highways or around large cities for a week. “This is enough to put companies in the road freight transport sector in great difficulty,” according to the National Road Transport Federation (FNTR).

The turnover which has not been achieved during the last two weeks, the lengthening of journey times, the increase in drivers' working hours will weigh on the cash flow of these companies from mid-February. Companies which say they understand the distress of the agricultural world but which appeal to the government to resolve the situation. 

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“I don’t know how to make money.”

Since last week, Hocine, a driver for the Load company, has had difficult days behind the wheel of his truck, particularly around Paris. “In the Paris region, we were diverted by Survilliers, they told us ‘you get out of your way’. The number of kilometers we travel for nothing… I don’t know how we manage to make money” , he explains at the microphone of Europe 1. 

And in fact, his boss, Jean-Luc Dejode, has done his sums: half of his 30 trucks slowed down, or even blocked, represents a loss of 7,500 euros per day. "Already, we have excess fuel consumption because we use the secondary network rather than the motorway. There are overtime hours for drivers, and even canceled departures since for certain customers, we have canceled departures, knowing that we were going to face the problem of blockages,” he says.

“We want to practice our profession”

A shortfall and an exasperation which is starting to rise in the profession according to this boss, president of the National Transport Federation of the North. “What we are asking the government as a priority is to unblock the situation. We want to deliver our goods, we want to carry out our job which takes place on the road. If this is not the case, we will do the accounts and we will present the bill to the government for all the days immobilized,” he loses his temper. Blockages which cannot last, insists Jean-Luc Dejode, even if he understands the dismay of the agricultural world.