The alarm of the trade associations continues for the imminent entry into force of the obligation of the green pass for all workers. After ports and agriculture, even those representing trucking companies have warned that the sector risks paralysis starting next Friday, when all workers will be required to exhibit the Covid-19 green certification to access the workplace in Italy , the first European country to introduce this obligation.
In road transport, as many as 30 percent of operators would not have the Certification, according to what was declared by the president of Conftrasporto-Confcommercio Paolo Uggè in a letter sent to the Prime Minister Mario Draghi and to the Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Enrico Giovannini. Most of these would be foreign workers, some of whom have received vaccines not recognized in Italy such as the Chinese Sinovac or the Russian Sputnik. “In two days there is a risk of chaos with a huge unknown in supplies and the regular functioning of transport and logistics,” said Uggè.
According to Ivano Russo, general director of the Italian General Confederation of Transport and Logistics (Confetra), as many as 80% of foreign drivers who are not vaccinated. “The risk of everything being blocked is objective,” he told Agi, stating that an average of 25-30% among hauliers, couriers and warehouse operators do not have a green pass. “It is clear that if you subtract a third of the workforce from an already troubled sector, on the one hand because it is growing, on the other because there are about 5,000 drivers missing, you are heading towards a decapitation of the delivery business,” he said.
The Italian Federation of professional road hauliers (Fiap), which speaks of a “critical” situation, argues that the risk is actually that of reaching supermarkets with empty shelves and blocked industries. According to the Fiap, the situation “risks having a devastating impact on the sector, already burdened by an alarming shortage of drivers (it is estimated that there are around 20/30 thousand missing)”. “From the data collected by companies operating in the sector and by various producers / clients, inefficiencies and a possible reduction in delivery capacity of up to 50% are estimated”, declared the association.
Last Friday, at the table convened at the Ministry of Transport led by Enrico Giovannini, various solutions were proposed to overcome the lack of Certification. Among these, the installation of tents near the border to subject all foreign hauliers to swabs, which the companies do not intend to pay, or the introduction of distancing measures between workers, such as the request to have the recipients unload goods. the goods, without letting the drivers get out of the cabin.