Diesel and spare parts are becoming more expensive, there are not enough drivers - as a result, prices for transported goods are rising.
Yelena Ivanova, Natalia Seibil
Yekaterina Boltova has been in the road transportation business for almost 30 years. She founded and ran her own company. When I started in 1993, there was a prospect. Bought an apartment, there was money. Now she has 4 Kamaz trucks, all of them are leased. He is going to take another one, also on leasing.
"We take KAMAZ, because taking a Mercedes is about 13-14 million, just one head without a trailer. The new hitch will cost 15 million. Leasing a car is beneficial for those who work with VAT", - says Yekaterina. However, with the increase in tolls on Russian roads, profits are decreasing every year, and business expansion opportunities are dwindling before our eyes.
Vladimir Matyagin, President of the National Association of Freight Road Transport, says that the increase in Platon's rates will mean only one thing - the carrier's costs will increase, and he will raise tariffs.
As a result, this will affect the pocket of every Russian. Last year, prices for road transport increased by 15-25%, and since this year they have already increased by 15-25%, that is, over the past 13 months, the growth has ranged from 30% to 45%
- This is due to an increase in prices for spare parts by 50% , for wheels - by 60% -70%, for freight transport itself, prices have increased significantly, for "platons" - 20%. Over the past year, the price of diesel fuel has risen by 16% - 19%, and prices continue to rise. Increased tax on recycling services. There is a constant increase in carrier costs. - sums up Matyagin.
It cannot be said that the state was not interested this year, why prices are rising, primarily for the transportation of agricultural products, which, at the latest from August, should have fallen in price, but it did not get cheaper, but, on the contrary, became more expensive and more expensive. The Antimonopoly Service sent inquiries, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Transport of Russia held meetings to find out why everything is becoming more expensive, says the vice president of the Russian Motor Transport Union, chairman of the commission on road transport and road facilities of the public council of Rostransnadzor, co-chairman of the working group in the field of transport security under the government commission for control and permitting activities Valery Alekseyev:
- The Ministry of Transport, as a regulator, and we, as an association, recommended following the results of these meetings to make it impossible for a peak increase in prices so that for a long period the carrier and the shipper could calculate their financial obligations to each other.
As the following months show, this did not help much. But programmed another trouble came - "Plato". According to government decree No. 504, payment indexation must be carried out annually by the percentage of inflation. The indexation procedure is such that in August Rosavtodor publishes information on how much prices will increase. Reasonable? Reasonable. The only problem is that in August the government did not know what inflation would be, and instead of the official 5-6% by the end of the year it became almost 9%. Obviously, this increase was not included in any prices, and carriers will now have to pay not 10 kopecks more per kilometer, but 14.
Yekaterina Boltova, when asked what to do, simply says - wrap it in foil and not pay:
- If a car rolls about 12,000 km a month, and you have more than one car, not two, or three, then a very large amount comes out! That's why they wrap it in foil. Yes, sometimes there are fines, but sometimes they don’t arrive. They wrap the tracker with foil, they do everything with it. The Russian people are inquisitive and resourceful. If there is an action, then there will be a reaction. No one will ride on the water, but you can wrap the tracker in foil.
And they turn. According to the National Association of Road Freight Transport, no more than 30% of cars pay bribes, 70% go past Platon. If the collection rate were 100%, and the control bodies would work as expected, maybe we would not need to raise prices for Platon today, since a large amount of finance does not fall through the Platon system, Vladimir Matyagin believes, adding :
- When there were strikes in 2015, road carriers tried to reason with the government and the Ministry of Transport that if the state does not monitor pricing and does not really delve into the problems of carriers, this will lead to a decline in the industry. Instead, the authorities come up with more and more requisitions. Transport workers do not understand why the authorities subsidize the oil industry, and they literally “suck money out of transport for other industries”.
They collect from the transport industry in the Platon system - this goes into road construction. Excises on fuel also go to road construction. The transport tax also goes to road construction. If we actually take money from our segment, they collect money from us three times for the same thing. And they give nothing in return.
Carriers especially complain about VAT. If we remove 20%, it would offset the costs. Especially the very small ones - the owners of individual entrepreneurs - suffer from this. They save on everything. What you can't save on is fuel. Yekaterina Boltova cannot contain her indignation:
- Basically, everyone drives on diesel fuel. The price of diesel fuel is higher than the 95th gasoline! In Novosibirsk, diesel already costs 60-65 rubles per liter. Naturally, in addition to the payment for the Platon system, the price of fuel is one of the main factors. Spare parts. Everything has risen in price, metal has risen in price. Be kind! Cars have gone up in price...
It is almost impossible to change the fleet now, used cars have increased in price, not like new ones. Large companies update their fleet more often, small companies - much less often. Younger cars drive on long-distance transportations, cars are much older in the city and in the suburbs.
- According to calculations, the average age of cars is 17 years. The task was to make pricing transparent and make the renewal of equipment more efficient, since, from my point of view, the performance indicator of road transport is associated with the possibility of updating the rolling stock. If we cannot update it, then the transport is not working efficiently. Updating is an indicator of the work of road transport, - says Valery Alekseyev.
The manufacturer provides for a truck service life of 10-11 years. 20 years, other experts say, means that decommissioned and unsafe multi-ton cars are driving on Russian roads. If they are still used with reloading, which absolutely all carriers do, the service life is reduced faster. No one thinks about the environment in such a situation. True, in richer regions, like in Moscow, the authorities impose environmental restrictions. In the rest of Russia - everything is as always. Very few transport companies can afford new cars. Leasing contracts are concluded, as a rule, for 5 years, the interest on them is 20% per year.
In today's conditions, it is unrealistic to buy cars at such prices and beat them off, so entrepreneurs have not invested in updating vehicles for several years. Entrepreneurs in the transport sector are leaving the market, there is a shortage of transport, which provokes an increase in freight prices. - Absolutely all experts in road transportation are sure.
Another factor why transport prices are rising is the lack of drivers. Now the driver's salary is already 120 thousand rubles a month, and the salaries are white - the state is watching with a keen eye that everything is in accordance with the law. As a result, each driver costs the employer 200 thousand rubles. But they are not enough, says Yekaterina Boltova:
- No one has taught drivers to be enough. Category E drivers used to be taught at DOSAAF. Who will teach them, entrepreneurs? And why should they? Everything is growing, of course, we have to raise wages. The salary is calculated per kilometer, parking is taken into account. Get who works. But less than a hundred thousand - there is not even a conversation. When they earn more than 120 thousand, it means that they work in violation of the labor regime. The mode of work and rest... we have topographers in cars and record everything. How much the car drove, how much the car rested, and so on. Who goes to the Urals, who goes to Yekaterinburg, 120 thousand is a real amount.
Unlike industry, transport is still regulated by the market, here the state behaves like a market player. But his maps are much better than those of transport workers.
All over the world there are calculations that show that the service of all transport, not only automobile, is directly proportional to the growth or fall of GDP. Growth in traffic is 7% with GDP growth of 1%. Of these, half of the transportation is carried out by road. We have a direct relationship.
Seven years have passed since 2015, but nothing has changed in the attitude of the state towards the industry. The screws have been tightened on us from all sides, says Vladimir Matyagin, and now carriers are actively shifting all this to the end consumer.
Yekaterina Boltova has her own opinion on this matter:
- We need to deal with our country inside, raise the economy, build factories, and not make enemies around the perimeter! In the 90s, we opened a business, bought an apartment, there were prospects. And now there are no prospects!
From the fact that they will increase the requisitions according to "Plato", the prices in the stores will only become higher, and the vicious circle will remain. The question arises - why is “Platon” so dear to the state? Or, after all, someone in government offices will say that the truth is dearer to them.