A dirty and noisy truck circulated on Sunday afternoon near the Retiro collecting garbage, cardboard and other junk in some of the richest streets of the city as if they were junk dealers.
It was a very polluting diesel vehicle, 20 years old, and covered in rust and grime.
He wore a yellow environmental sticker from the DGT with the letter B on his windshield, but it was false.
The sticker corresponded to the license plate of another more recent vehicle (see the photos of this truck and the sticker below in the text).
An ordinary citizen would lose his hair for doing something like that.
But this truck has a very powerful owner.
It shows the municipal colors, some green and white squares, and some letters on its side that say Madrid.
Environment.
According to the Madrid City Council councilor for the area responsible for cleaning, Borja Carabante, old municipal vehicles no longer circulate on the M-30 and its interior, the Low Emission Zone, and the fleet is almost 100% clean.
“We are asking citizens to renew their vehicles.
How is the City Council itself not going to renew those vehicles?
He said it in an interview with Cadena SER last week in which he also denied a text and some photos published by EL PAÍS in which part of the fleet of old vehicles was seen.
"Some vehicles attached to the Environment area that were parked for scrapping appeared in a photograph," he assured to deny that they were still being used.
After the publication of that article,
the trucks were transferred from the base in the south of Madrid where the snapshots were taken to other facilities, according to the workers.
But it is impossible to hide some vehicles that pass daily and in broad daylight in front of the homes of the people of Madrid.
There are many trucks that do not comply with municipal rules.
The companies that provide the cleaning service for the City Council should have bought new and sustainable fleets in 2021, when they won the new contracts for cleaning public spaces, divided into six areas of the city.
But 655 of the 1,235 cleaning vehicles (53%) were too old because they had been registered before January 1, 2021 (maximum age allowed by contracts), according to a municipal database with the information available at the end of the year. past and to which EL PAÍS has had access thanks to a request for information from the independent councilor Marta Higueras.
The City Council has not fined any contractor for these breaches, including some of the most powerful companies in Spain such as Sacyr,
A Madrid City Council cleaning truck with CFJ license plate, from 2003, on Sunday at the corner of Goya and Castelló streets, in the Salamanca district (this is the truck mentioned in the article).FP
The mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez-Almeida, presented these contracts in November 2021, when they came into force, as part of the effort to end dirt in Madrid, the main complaint from residents.
It was time to renew the cleaning contracts signed in 2013 by Mayor Ana Botella, which had reduced the demands on the concessionaires.
The companies had little incentive to renew their fleet: 90% of their vehicles were polluting and with an average age of 20 years.
For a value of 1,634 million euros in six annual installments, the new cleaning contracts (which include street sweeping and washing, but not container collection) are the most expensive in the municipal budget.
Almeida also presented that day the contracts for green areas, for 475 million (which also have fleet renewal requirements that have been breached).
For the photo, Almeida surrounded himself with almost fifty new generation vehicles with the Madrid 360 logo, the environmental banner of his mandate.
But the presentation was not the worst of the fleet.
They are vehicles like a 1995 diesel washer with a Cádiz license plate that serves the two districts of Vallecas, in Moratalaz and Vicálvaro.
Or two diesel washers from 1997 in the districts of Centro, Tetuán or Chamberí, in the Low Emission Zone.
The Councilor for the Environment, Borja Carabante, and the mayor, José Luis Martínez Almeida, (third from the left) in front of a municipal truck at the presentation of the new cleaning contracts in Madrid. MADRID CITY COUNCIL
In the fleet that still circulates through the streets of Madrid there is everything: 15 vehicles have registrations prior to 2000, 477 between 2000 and 2010 and 163 between 2010 and 2020. Altogether there are 655 vehicles prior to January 1, 2021. Only there are 295 electric vehicles, 165 natural gas and seven hybrids.
The rest, 755, are diesel or gasoline.
The six concessionaires have failed to comply with the six-month term given by the City Council for all their vehicles to have registration after January 1, 2021. In addition, the contracts establish that the vehicles must have a Zero (electric) or Eco (hybrid) label and gas), with minor exceptions (for example, 10% of heavy trucks and 40% of sweepers and washers can be diesel as long as they comply with Euro 6, a demanding European standard).
large contracts
The winning companies have an opportunity to profit excessively from very large contracts if they are allowed to provide the service at cost savings.
Lot one (Centro, Chamberí and Tetuán) amounts to 306 million euros and corresponds to Cespa, which has recently been acquired by the German company PreZero (of the Schwarz group, owner of Lidl supermarkets).
Lot two (Arganzuela, Retiro, Salamanca and Chamartín) amounts to 274 million and corresponds to a union of Valoriza (construction company Sacyr) and Ingesan (construction company OHLA).
Lot three (Fuencarral-El Pardo, Moncloa-Aravaca and Latina) is worth 269 million and belongs to Urbaser, owned by the US fund Platinum Equity.
Lot four (Hortaleza, Barajas,
Ciudad Lineal and San Blas-Canillejas) is worth 300 million and was awarded to the union of the Spanish Álvaro Benítez SA (subsidiary of the construction company FCC) and the infrastructure company Acciona.
Lot five (Puente de Vallecas, Moratalaz, Villa de Vallecas and Vicálvaro) is worth 233 million and is also owned by Urbaser.
And lot six (Usera, Villaverde and Carabanchel) is worth 252 million and belongs to FCC.
The most non-compliant is Álvaro Benítez/Acciona (77% of its fleet is prior to 2021) and the most compliant is Urbaser (27%).
Several companies have replied to EL PAÍS that they have agreed to delegate the responses to their breaches to the City Council.
Councilor Carabante's department has excused these companies by giving contradictory arguments.
A spokeswoman told this newspaper last week that companies have had trouble getting new fleets into the car market due to a shortage of chips.
But then councilor Carabante assured Cadena SER that most of the dealerships had renewed 100% of their vehicles.
The database held by EL PAÍS, obtained by councilor Higueras on December 19, shows that all companies were far from fully compliant.
Carabante also said that there were already 550 gas vehicles, but the database contains only 165 vehicles with that technology.
The City Council has granted them an extension until March 31 because of the delays they say they are experiencing due to the international market situation.
The Environment spokesperson assures that during January the companies have incorporated new vehicles and compliance now amounts to 66.4%.
The spokeswoman adds that they do not appreciate a lack of diligence on the part of the contractors: "Parts and components, mainly electronic, are missing due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the invasion of Ukraine, both of which continue to have a negative influence on manufacturing of vehicles and machines.
She adds that part of the problem is the shortage of heavy machinery: "It is the one that accumulates the most delays, it was commissioned in November, and many units were commissioned even before the formalization of the contracts."
few fines
The City Council promised that the new contracts would imply greater quality control thanks to a team of municipal inspectors who examine the concessionaires at street level.
But the truth is that, according to the information provided to councilor Marta Higueras, the six concessionaires had only received eight fines up to December 2022 for a total of 119,000 euros due to minor breaches such as not emptying a trash can, cleaning up a neighborhood portal or not pick up the cardboard or furniture deposited next to the containers.
Curiously, the eight fines are concentrated in April and May and in the documentation delivered by the City Council to the councilor there is no other sanction imposed for the rest of the year.
The Carabante spokeswoman tells this newspaper that 18 more fines have recently been processed.
The companies that won the contracts for green areas and trees in 2021 on the condition of buying new trucks have not renewed their fleet either, according to the CSIF union.
EL PAÍS was able to see how old trucks coming from the districts of Arganzuela, Retiro, Salamanca and Chamartín, all inside the M-30, entered and left the Valoriza base of operations in the Vicálvaro district (southeast).
Workers feel that dealerships view vehicle savings as part of a strategy to cut costs and increase profits.
"Vacations or sick leave are not covered here," says a Valoriza employee who asks to remain anonymous to avoid punishment from the company.
The truck with the fake DGT sticker belongs to Valoriza/Ingesan.
The workers don't know who put it up.
They are little guys who do their job and don't get into trouble.
"Who knows?
There are workers very involved with the cause”, says another employee.
"But the normal thing is that it is the work of foremen from above."
The illegal label avoids accusing glances in the Salamanca district, in the Low Emission Zone, where only vehicles with B, C, ECO and ZERO labels can circulate.
Thus, they camouflage themselves from the neighbors and perhaps distract a City Council that for now does not punish them for failing to comply.
The false environmental label of the Valoriza/Ingesan cleaning truck indicates that it corresponds to a vehicle with HTV registration (year 2013), but the truck registration is CFJ (year 2003).FP
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