As of: 03/14/2022 4:29 p.m
Energy prices have been rising steadily since Russia attacked Ukraine. Petrol and diesel already cost significantly more than two euros per liter. The transport industry demands quick relief.
The motorway service station in Wasserbillig, Luxembourg, just after Trier: Cars and mobile homes are crowded at the pumps. Most come from Germany. Not only from the immediate vicinity, you can also see cars with Cologne or Dortmund license plates. Tank tourism to Luxembourg is nothing new. Because VAT is lower in the Grand Duchy and prices are capped by the state, many German drivers traditionally head for the petrol stations there.
Refueling is only necessary as much as is absolutely necessary
But even there you are not used to as much hustle and bustle as at the moment. At the moment, significantly more drivers are happy to put up with the journey and the waiting at petrol pumps and ticket booths. If you can fill up a liter of diesel in Luxembourg for more than 50 cents cheaper than in Germany, for example, many become patient and relaxed.
However, Christian Kau is anything but patient and relaxed. The farmer from Stockbornerhof in Rhineland-Palatinate is seriously considering the future of his business. According to Kau, he needs around 35,000 liters of diesel a year to manage his 150-hectare farm and almost 200 livestock. Tractors, combine harvesters, many machines in agriculture only run on diesel.
Normally, the 36-year-old always has a decent supply of it in the yard. At the moment, however, he only has as much fuel in stock as he absolutely needs – in the hope that the price of diesel will drop again in the foreseeable future. But that won’t happen without the involvement of politicians, says Kau.
“Our reserves are exhausted”
Timo Kröber from Winningen on the Mosel thinks so too. Kröber has a bus company with fourteen coaches. They are on the road all over Europe, next year the company will be 70 years old. With the prospect of the anniversary, company boss Kröber and his around 35 employees fought their way through the difficult Corona period, and everything should get better again in 2022.
And indeed there are many travel bookings – only Kröber can no longer drive to cover costs because of the increased fuel prices. “Our reserves have been used up,” says the Rhineland-Palatinate. “We can’t pass the increased costs on to our passengers all at once. If politicians don’t lower taxes on petrol and diesel now, that’s it for us.”
Not all customers understand
Similar thoughts are driving Roland Modschiedler from Bobenheim-Roxheim in the south of Rhineland-Palatinate. If you ask the freight forwarder how he is doing at the moment, he says frankly: “Catastrophic”. The Palatinate has 60 trucks that are on the road throughout Germany. They transport, among other things, prefabricated houses and concrete basements. Roland Modschiedler is currently on the phone even more than usual. He is trying to negotiate new contracts with all customers. The calculation of the prices for 2022 was based on a liter price for diesel of 1.60 euros. Due to the price explosion at the petrol stations, the entrepreneur is currently paying for every kilometer driven.
Modschiedler says that many customers understand his situation and his desire to adapt contracts that have already been concluded to current price developments. But not all of them are. And even those who are willing need time: “After all, they too have to recalculate their own prices and inform their customers.”
However, this is not possible as quickly as fuel costs are rising. Modschiedler says that the adjusted contracts that he had negotiated in the past few days only took effect on April 1st. In the end, consumers will also feel this, for example when the prices for prefabricated houses, which Roland Modschiedler’s forwarding company delivers, among other things, rise.
If she still delivers. At the moment, the man from the Palatinate is not sure whether his company will survive the current situation. At the moment, the entrepreneur says he is making a loss of around 18 euros for every 100 kilometers driven. On average, his truck fleet covers six million kilometers a year.
Empty supermarket shelves warning
Dirk Engelhardt from the Federal Association of Road Haulage knows such concerns well enough. He says there are 47,000 companies in the industry across Germany. Most of them are small and medium-sized companies, the profit margins are not high anyway. The current price explosion for fuel cannot be compensated for with this.
“In Brandenburg, a freight forwarder stopped operating last week,” says Engelhard. If this trend continues, it could have far-reaching consequences. Engelhardt warns: “Our supply can only be guaranteed if small and medium-sized transport companies remain in the market. Otherwise, many supermarket shelves will soon remain empty.”
Call for help to politicians
The association Mobility & Logistics Rhineland-Palatinate (MOLO eV) also sees this danger. Among other things, the association demands from Prime Minister Malu Dreyer that the SPD politician campaign for cheaper commercial diesel. He also fights for financial support for companies that transport schoolchildren, kindergarten children and the disabled, for example. In an open letter it says: “No entrepreneurial calculation could reflect the current price increases for fuel. Without support from the municipal family, the price shock for diesel will do what two years of the corona pandemic failed to do: the medium-sized bus sector and the taxi and drive car rental companies into bankruptcy.”
She has already signaled that politicians want to react. According to media reports, finance minister Christian Lindner from the FDP is considering a tank discount, while economics minister Robert Habeck from the Greens wants to relieve the financial burden on citizens with a whole bundle of measures. Details are not yet known in both cases. But regardless of whether they are commuters or companies from the transport industry – they all hope for a quick and noticeable relief. Then things could get a little quieter again at the gas stations in Luxembourg just after Trier.