PORT authorities and transporters had their hands full yesterday clearing the logjam from the islands’ two harbours, blockaded by protesting truck drivers for a week.
Truckers who are A and D licence holders temporarily lifted their crippling strike on Saturday night, agreeing to renew negotiations with officials.
They are claiming that the Licensing Authority continues to issue class C licences to private companies to serve their businesses to the detriment of professional truck drivers. By law, class C licences should only be issued to specially designated vehicles in special cases, but according to the truckers anyone with a truck is being issued one.
The government says the Licensing Authority is independent and evaluates the evidence for handing out licences on its own.
By some estimates, the six-week blockade cost the economy some £25 million. Some 2,500 containers were left stranded on the piers. The commodities included large quantities of imported timber and iron.
The lifting of the industrial action came at the eleventh hour, just as the government began losing patience and contemplating moving in police forces to break up the blockade. Local farmers were already protesting that some 4,500 tons of perishable citrus fruits slated for export were going bad.
In a goodwill gesture, on Saturday evening the truckers told the Justice Minister he was welcome to join them over campfires for some “souvla and zivania.”
Reciprocating, the government has said it will cancel the traffic fines issued to the strikers for illegally parking their vehicles outside the ports.
The ports at Limassol and Larnaca witnessed a frenzy of activity yesterday, as authorities and HGVs hurried to make up for the lost time.
Today, representatives of the truck drivers will sit down with the House Communications Committee “for an exhaustive discussion, in order to resolve the profession’s issues once and for all,” as committee chairman Zacharias Koullias put it.
“We are ready and willing to agree to any demands that are sensible,” he said.
Koullias pledged that, if agreement were reached, politicians would fast-track any changes to the laws governing the trucking profession.
According to deputy Giorgos Varnavas, a committee member, seven out the eight demands put forward by the drivers would require amendments to the relevant legislation.
“We urge them [the drivers] to come to the meeting with an open mind and not be suspicious,” noted Varnavas.
Still, it’s unclear how all of the truckers’ demands can be met, as the government says it is obliged under EU regulations to deregulate transport services instead of creating more barriers.
For their part, the truckers remained sceptical but willing to talk.
Loucas Demetriou, President of the Pancyprian Business Association of A and D Licence Holders (PSEA), said the government had made similar promises in the past, but failed to promote them to Parliament.
“However, at this point, it would not be wise to scratch old wounds, so that we don’t go back to square one,” said Demetriou.
