Ambulance, transporters, nurses… the soaring prices at the pump hit full in the face. Testimonials.
They will not go to swell the ranks of the “yellow vests” the 17th of November, but they share their annoyance. Drive, that is their business. They do not have other solution than doing the full. “We have between 350 and 380 litres of diesel every day for our 35 vehicles, which operate 360 days per year,” explains Jérôme Combes, head of two companies of medical transportation in the departments of Cantal and Puy-de-Dome. I calculated that in the first half of 2018, with sales figures equal, we had already spent 24 000 euros more at the pump than last year.”
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Ludovic Fournier runs a delivery company in Clermont-Ferrand. Since the beginning of the year, he has the eyes riveted on fuel bills. “Half of my thirty drivers made 350 miles per day, worries there. At this rate, a full tank of diesel, it is every two days. Overall, it costs me 20% more these last few months.” This increase grows the leader of a family business specializing in the last mile and the express couriers “to look at everything to track down any source of economy in order not to continue to devour the little space that remains.”
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Listen to Christophe Barbier predict the probable success of the day “yellow Vests” – and find an explanation (on SoundCloud).
“The shipping rates are set by our customers, who always want to pull them down, grieves-t-it. Our fresh, them, they explode. If it continues like this, I plan to work less in my drivers and the switch from 39 hours to 35 hours.”
90 euros more per month for a nurse liberal
Emilie Navogne is a nurse liberal in the Haute-Loire. Each day she travels more than 200 kilometres to cure his patients. “I am in my car all day,” she says. None of my patients is within walking distance.” The young woman goes to the service station two to three times per week. “The bill increases progressively for several months, she said. Each month, I go out almost 90 euros more in my pocket, compared to 2016.”
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Emilie receives a mileage allowance, as all of the medical and paramedical professions, but they do not compensate for its costs. “I have a right to € 2.50 per trip, she said. As we are in the mountain area, there is also a 0.50 euro cents in addition, if the person lives more than a kilometre of the cabinet. But the rates have not budged for several years and do not follow the price at the pump.”
The proposal by Edouard Philippe, November 14, to enhance the scale of mileage allowance January 1, 2019 will apply to individuals, not to the health professionals like Emilie. “I heard it rolling this morning,” she adds. I told myself that there was nothing for the artisans, the liberal professions, or the average income. And my car, made to go everywhere in the mountains, is probably too powerful compared to the criteria announced.”
electric? Still not quite “available”
And if the solution was to change the vehicle to pass from fuel? All say that they have thought of. Ludovic Fournier has peeled all of the offers of utilities electric. “For a similar level of equipment and same volume of charge, the cost of purchase would increase from 30 000 to 60 000 euros, he says. I expect it to become a little more accessible.”
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For his part, Jérôme Combes plans to renew its fleet with the hybrid. “The purchase cost would be reasonable and in the medium term it should be largely, he hoped. But I would like to buy from a French manufacturer, so I expect a little that the offer will be extended. I have to change a third of my vehicles in August 2019, but as I eyeing a model in Peugeot should come out the end of 2019, I’ll try to wait a few more months.”
For Emilie Navogne, it is “unthinkable” to switch to a vehicle that is less dependent on diesel. “I don’t see myself riding in an electric car or even hybrid, if you need to recharge it regularly, she advocates. Patients are waiting and I can’t afford to waste time.”
“Where will the money for these taxes?”
They are worried, but none of them take place Saturday next to the side of the “yellow vests”. Ludovic Fournier believes that “everyone does as he wishes,” and will say no more. For Jérôme Combes, the blocking of roads, is “unnecessary”. “I don’t see myself bothering other users, defended it. It must be accountable to the people who govern us and who we tax. It is still mind-blowing that we don’t know where that money goes, because it’s not going to be the ecological transition.”
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The movement of the yellow vests
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Emilie Navogne will not be either. She prefers assister, on the 20th of November, at a national gathering launched by sixteen trade unions of nurses, all statutes alike, who believe that their profession is “forgotten”. These category claims go well beyond the question of the fuel, even if for her, “it’s the water drop that makes the vase overflow”.