Less work, lower income, difficulty in eating on the roads and few hygiene precautions to prevent truck drivers from suffering.
Although this is the perception of self-employed truck drivers amid the coronavirus epidemic (Covid-19) in Brazil.
However, truck driver leaders from different regions of the country complain about the quarantine in some states and municipalities and say that state and federal governments should take more measures with the class in mind.
Despite their dissatisfaction, they claim that the likelihood of a strike is practically zero.
“With the country at a standstill, we have to do what we can, says Cminhoneiros”
Therefore, complaints about reduced workloads are common during the pandemic. According to leaders, most of the companies' shipments are at a standstill and many of them are "taking advantage of the situation" to avoid paying the freight rate.
Therefore, the minimum freight price table was one of the main concessions made by President Michel Temer's government to end the national truck drivers' strike in 2018.
However, Ailton Rodrigues, leader of Baixada Santista, in São Paulo, assesses that the volume of work decreased by more than half this month.
It's slow. Services have slowed down significantly, by at least 60%. With the country almost at a standstill, we're making do. Ailton Rodrigues, truck driver from Santos (SP).
According to him, in addition to being few, the freights that do appear have paid less. “They offered a service up to Paraná. From here [Santos] to there, the price would be around R$2,500. They offered R$1,200, less than half.
So is it okay? Is this business okay? No one is respecting the schedule, no,” complained the truck driver. “Everything is at a standstill. I picked up a load from Maceió and then nothing else came up. So for a week now I’ve been doing nothing but community support.”
In short, we even call suppliers, but they say they don’t have anything right now,” said Gilson Cruz, a truck driver from João Pessoa.