Fevzi Apaydın, President of the Turkish Drivers and Automobile Federation (TŞOF), pointed out that the driver tradesmen have been in a difficult situation with the price hikes in fuel in the last 1 year. Apaydın said, “While the diesel liter price was around 6,59 Turkish Liras (TL) in February 2021, a 134 percent increase came in the period until February 2022. The increase in taxi and minibus prices by 36 percent and service fees by 27 percent does not meet the efforts of our tradesmen. This situation puts our driver tradesmen in a difficult situation.”
“After the increasing costs within a year, the hikes in the tariffs of our tradesmen brought them to the point where they could not meet the expenses. As stated in Article 173 of our Constitution, the state must take protective and supportive measures for our tradesmen and artisans. In order to increase the welfare level of our driver tradesmen and to ensure that their efforts are rewarded, after the fuel price hikes, where our drivers are having a hard time, the abolition of Value Added Tax (VAT) in fuel and The Sliding Scale System needs to be re-implemented," Apaydın added.
“FREE SHIPPING SUPPORT IS INSUFFICIENT”
Emphasizing that the free transportation support is insufficient, Apaydın said, “In the face of the daily increase in the costs of our tradesmen and the increasing costs, the support given by the Ministry of Family and Social Services to private public buses for free boarding in Ankara and Istanbul is still 1,330 TL and 1,000 TL in other metropolitan cities. The fact that the support given to non-metropolitan provinces remains at 800 TL, challenges our tradesmen with a 134 percent increase in fuel within 1 year. The support should be increased and updated and calculated per passenger."