The Brazilian government announced measures to force compliance with minimum road freight in order to avoid a potential truck drivers’ strike and force repeat offender companies to continue charging freight, spilling responsibility onto agribusiness companies. One of the first companies to react was Raízen, which was cited by the Minister of Transport, Renan Filho, as one of the companies repeating fixed freight charges.
This Wednesday (18), the minister said that 20% of companies in the country fail to comply with the minimum value of road freight, with emphasis on the agricultural sector. In a note sent to CNN, Raízen responded to the mention by stressing that it does not use autonomous transport in its fuel operations and maintains contracts with large logistics companies.
According to the company, the calculation of freight paid in these operations considers two components — a fixed value and a variable one. The company highlights that the ongoing inspection would only be taking into account part of this composition, disregarding the total shipping cost. Raízen stated that the model adopted follows the contractual structure in force with its carriers.
For producers, cooperatives and trading companies, freight is a crucial part of the production cost and varies according to harvest, distance, truck availability and fuel price. During harvest periods, when there is greater demand for transport, prices rise. In moments of less movement, they fall.
The minimum table may force the contractor to pay more even when there is an excess supply of transport. For agriculture, this means an artificial increase in costs, loss of flexibility in negotiations and, ultimately, a reduction in international competitiveness — especially in commodities, where cents make a difference, as CNN Agro found.
