The strike in the energy sector and the resulting fuel shortages or rationing are impacting operations and workers who are heavily dependent on vehicle travel.
This is a burden in addition to the increase in fuel and energy prices, but its impact on the French economy is still difficult to measure.
According to INSEE, 74% of people who travel to work use their car.
“It is a problem of stress but also a problem of cost because it increases the tension on a market that did not need it and it weighs on the purchasing power of employees,” said Fabrice Le Saché, vice-president and spokesman of Medef.
“Panic” among caregivers and firefighters
Certain emergency vehicles (firefighters, police, SAMU or gendarmerie) are considered as priority. Liberal caregivers (doctors, nurses, home care workers, and seniors’ aides) are demanding that they too have this access.
Firefighters in the Rhône region have asked for measures to allow them to buy fuel to reach their fire stations and thus ensure “continuity of service”.
Apart from health and firefighters, other sectors are asking for the release of additional strategic stocks from the State to maintain their activity.
Transportation “very concerned”
“There is a problem for all companies that have vehicle fleets,” summarizes Fabrice Le Saché.
Road hauliers are “on the edge”, according to the professional organization Otre. The companies have their own tanks but “always have difficulties to be delivered” in time and in quantity.
Some gas stations also refuse to serve or restrict access to trucks.
“We have carriers who have mobilized employees and a delivery service to refuel vehicles during the night … to hope to be able to leave the next morning for deliveries,” says François Asselin, president of the Confederation of SMEs, also mentioning difficulties for maintenance services, breakdown services and cabs.
FlixBus long-distance coaches have requested priority access for their area. Several driving schools have also raised the alarm, with instructors forced to wait in line for hours to fill up.
The wholesalers are “very worried” and anticipate “severe disruptions in deliveries” from Friday, most do not have storage tanks. Some companies have moved up their start times early in the morning to find fuel.
“No seedlings” for agriculture
In the north of France, farmers have exhausted their reserves of RNG (non-road diesel) and are seeing their deliveries rationed: no more than 1,000 liters in the Marne or in Flanders.
Several farms are or will be shut down in the coming days, warned the farmers’ federations, denouncing “a hostage situation” at a critical time.
“If we don’t do the sowing of cereals, it will have an impact on the availability of wheat in 2023 and therefore on bread. We are on alert, because the sowing is now, not in ten days or a month,” explained Joel Limouzin, vice president of the majority agricultural union FNSEA.
Another blow for the building industry
Some construction sites have already been suspended, reports François Asselin of the CPME.
“In the construction industry, excavators and machines need a lot of fuel, the places most affected by shortages are the Ile-de-France and the Hauts de France, with also employees who can not reach their sites, “said the president of the building trades (CAPEB) Jean-Christophe Repon.
It asks the government the possibility of obtaining partial activity measures by territory as was the case for Covid-19.
Business and leisure, collateral victims
For Fabrice Le Saché, there is an impact on “leisure, restaurants, shopping centers and trade in general, tertiary activities …
There are people who freeze their weekends and therefore do not consume and do not travel.” “Activity during the week of September 26 was very good (…) but it is down 6% compared to last year during the following week,” especially in outlying areas where consumers drive, added Yohann Petiot, Alliance’s general manager for the
commerce, which includes department stores and clothing and footwear brands.
“The logistics of the brands are under tension and this has the effect of slowing down the activity for some stores (…) For all that, the supply of the stores remains fully assured”, assured the
federation of commerce and distribution.
