«We are going through a particularly difficult moment, first the pandemic, which is still ongoing, to which the Ukrainian crisis has now been added. The increase in the price of diesel that most recently hit us adds to the effects, still heavy for our sector, caused by the Covid emergency with a strong reduction in ticketing revenues, in the overall framework of a further impact on our sector. balance”.
The analysis comes from the board of directors of TPL Linea Agnese Bellini, president of the road transport section of the Industrial Union of Savona, after the alarm raised about the increase in fuel prices for the Savona economy.
Here are the data on the energy crisis and expensive fuels: “In our area 130 buses are in service every day, consuming 3 million liters of diesel per year. During 2021 the average fuel costs were 1.1 euros per liter, while today we find ourselves with 1.62 euros per liter with an increase of about 50% that affects our speakers. If the situation does not improve significantly, at this rate, we would find ourselves facing an increase in costs relating to this item of approximately 1.5 million euros ”, Agnese Bellini emphasizes.
«We are therefore, at this moment, paying for diesel at costs never verified before… – he continues -. We cannot stop our vehicles, so the only solution is to draw on the company’s resources and guarantee the local public transport service, without increases in ticket prices. We must not forget, in fact, that for TPL Linea the cost of personnel and the cost of fuel represent fixed costs “.
The repercussions on public transport, according to the president of the Industrial Union of road haulage, must find effective answers and measures: “The recent intervention of the Government with the Energy Decree is nothing more than a filing of only 30 days and with a cut in excise duties too small to support the crisis we are going through. Among other things, this intervention on our diesel costs does not have the same impact as it does on private individuals ”.
Despite this emergency situation, the company does not stop and looks ahead towards electrically powered vehicles according to a corporate line of ecological and environmental sustainability: “We will try, in fact, a new 9-meter electric vehicle, class 2, which represents an absolute novelty on the market extra-urban with a view to continuing the planning already implemented on the electric vehicle fleet “.
“This in the medium-long term, now the priority is to stop the surge in the cost of diesel: the national trade associations have requested a structural intervention that can be more decisive and give concrete guarantees to a fundamental and strategic sector” concludes the member of the Board of Directors of TPL Linea