Chennai: Trailer Lorry Owners Association along with 15 other associations on Monday called off their four-day strike following an assurance from the deputy commissioner that the issue would be resolved, this Thursday after a joint meeting with the National Association of Container Freight Stations and the striking associations.
“Nearly 15,000 lorries did not operate for four days thereby affecting the import and export mainly including apples, groundnuts, onions, cashew nuts and tomatoes. The loss per day per vehicle is anywhere between '40 lakh and '1.5 crore depending on the products they are carrying,” said S. Padmanabhan from the trailer owners association. The associations initially staged a strike on March 18 and called it off the same day evening after an agreement was signed to meet their demands.
However, nothing was done later-the reason why the stir began again. Their demands include checking of irregularities in the release of payments against the backdrop of mounting diesel prices, increasing rent by 20 per cent, restricting the vehicles of Container Freight Stations (CFS) to 20 and release of payment within 10 days of delivery.
“In 2010, the then existing 13 NACFS had asked for 20 vehicles to help internal transit (embark and disembark containers inside the yard) at Container Freight Stations, in addition to the 10 lorries they possessed. But, gradually they started taking up export and import work leaving us with nothing,” said a member.
Moreover, in the yard, goods can be stocked free of cost only for three days after which the Port Trust levies demurrage charges. Cashing in on this, the associations started providing CFS for stocking the goods at a lesser price.
