High diesel prices: freight forwarders in existential fear - truck drivers paralyze highways

Created: 03/17/2022, 14:27

By: Patricia Huber

Organizer Gerd Fischer gathers with others for a demonstration against the current fuel prices.

© Rolf Vennenbernd/dpa

Freight forwarders are particularly affected by the high fuel prices.

With blockades and protests on the streets, truck drivers are now setting an example.

Cologne/Berlin - The current prices at the petrol stations are not only a burden for "normal consumers".

Freight forwarders and other logistics companies in particular are suffering from the consequences of the Ukraine war*.

Now truck drivers in North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin want to demonstrate to draw attention to their problems.

War in Ukraine drives up fuel prices: truck drivers block roads

On Wednesday afternoon (March 16), numerous drivers want to block the highways in NRW, as reported by the

.

The Cologne Ring and the A1, A3, A4 and A61 motorways are to be paralyzed with trucks.

Around 200,000 vehicles drive on the Cologne Ring alone every day.

The effects are likely to be massive.

The protests are already underway in Berlin.

Transport companies have been demonstrating with several truck convoys on the motorways in the Berlin area since early Wednesday morning for government help in dealing with the increased diesel prices.

The Brandenburg police called on Twitter to drive carefully, especially on the A10 and A111 motorways, because the trucks slowed down traffic there by crawling.

The goal is downtown Berlin, said one of the initiators of the protest of the German Press Agency.

Blockades or traffic jams are not planned there.

It's just a matter of transit.

The organizer spoke of several hundred trucks whose entrepreneurs took part in the actions.

The police initially gave no numbers.

Ukraine war: 600 euros more per day due to high fuel prices

The freight forwarder Gerd Fischer is also taking part in the protest action in North Rhine-Westphalia.

"It doesn't go any further, it's absurd," he grumbles in the

-Anzeiger about the prices at the pump.

He reports additional costs of 600 euros per day compared to the previous year.

Every three days, Fischer has to fill up each of his three trucks with 600 liters of diesel.

A year ago, a liter cost one euro less.

The additional costs are enormous, "and I don't get paid by any customer," he explains.

The federal government must act now, otherwise livelihoods will be endangered*.

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