By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
Truck drivers are refusing to get behind their wheels for the fourth day, leaving major seaports with a logjam of shipping containers. Soaring fuel costs triggered the strike; however, behind this is a multi-layered and complex cargo commission and distribution system.
Unionized, independent truckers say the more they work the more they lose due to surging fuel costs, which are compounded by the complicated cargo contract and freight charge systems.
Union members said any countermeasures without reform of the current cargo transportation system will be meaningless as they take home only a small portion of the freight transport fee after they pay commissions to truck firms and consigners who act as brokers.
The authorities said small-scale consigners with an insufficient information network are to blame for the crisis as they impose a higher commission burden on truck drivers.
Most of them don't have the information needed to verify transportation capacity of their subcontractors, government officials say. So when they learn that the ordered freight amount is beyond their ability, they have no choice but to seek help from other consigners. In the process of allocating the freight transport work, the commission increases, leaving little for truck drivers who are at the bottom of the complicated system.
``Of course, the first consigner shared the opportunity in exchange for receiving commission ranging between 7 and 10 percent of total freight. Namely, the more complicated the process, the lower the compensation for truck drivers,'' Lee Kwan-won, an official at the Ministry of Land, Transportation and Maritime Affairs, told The Korea Times. ``Second, many consigners recklessly receive transportation orders to make more money. Their excessive acceptance naturally leads to smaller margin for truck drivers.''
The ministry opened an integrated information system since 2004 to make better conditions for every member of the transportation industry and predicted the complex system would disappear. But the system didn't work since freight owners have hesitated to join the network for fear of opening their internal information to contractors.
The government is considering reducing the corporate tax for those that utilize the freight information network.
``Freight owners utilizing the system will get 3 percent corporate tax cut,'' Lee said. The ministry is in talks with relevant ministries over the details of this.
Union members also urge the government to set a legal formula to calculate reasonable freight charges, alleging the existing formula was made by an organization siding with freight owners which are mostly heavyweight companies such as Samsung Electronics and Hyundai Motor.
``The union for large container-hauling truckers designed the existing formula and it has been in effect since June 1. But the union arbitrarily designed the rule, unreflecting current volatile gas prices,'' said a member of the truckers' union.
The government had planned to introduce a legal formula by 2010, but the governing Grand National Party has decided to advance the date to next year, while the truckers' union is calling for the enactment of a bill during the National Assembly's regular session in September.
In response to skyrocketing gas prices, the government has pledged to compensate for half of the rise in diesel prices when they exceed 1,800 won ($1.8) per liter, starting next month. But union members are demanding the authorities lower the threshold to 1,600 won per liter. Truckers are also asking for at least a 30 percent increase in transportation fees, which have been frozen for the last five years.