Police will intervene if truckers undertake go-slow protest in Midsummer traffic

SMS messages going around about Thursday demonstration over fuel prices

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The police have responded that they will not stand idle if truckers carry out go-slow protests over Midsummer, with a view to paralysing traffic during one of Finland’s peak periods on the roads.
      Inspector Jussi Päivänsalo from the Helsinki unit of the national traffic police has noted that according to the highway code the free flow of traffic may not be obstructed by deliberately driving slower than conditions warrant.
      The possible protests have been referred to in SMS messages passed around among truck-drivers, exhorting them to go slow from Thursday afternoon, but there have also been unconfirmed reports that protests might begin on Wednesday.
     
According to Päivänsalo, the first line of defence by the police would be to direct slow-moving vehicles to the side of the road.
      "The timing of the protests, if they materialise, would be problematic and very awkward, on what is probably the busiest day of the year on Finnish roads", said Päivänsalo in reference to the Thursday rush to the summer cottage and the start of the holiday season, and he also observed that any such demonstrations would be bound to create traffic difficulties.
      "The traffic volumes are already going to be high, which will in any event place pressure on traffic surveillance. The last thing that would be necessary in such an situation would be people deliberately slowing things down."
     
Police surveillance and actions would be concentrated if necessary on those sections of road where go-slow protests are observed.
      The truckers' messages have for instance threatened to block all roads leading out of Helsinki, extending to a distance of 50km from the capital, with trucks deliberately crawling along at 20km/hour, and also Highway 1 (E18) between Lohjanharju and Turku.
      The subject was first reported in the Turku daily Turun Sanomat.
     
Iiro Lehtonen, the managing director of Finnish Transport and Logistics (SKAL), which promotes the interests of the transport sector, confirmed to Helsingin Sanomat on Monday that such messages have been circulating among drivers.
      He said that SKAL has not been organising the actions, but that the organisation has sympathy with the plight of the haulage companies.
      As Lehtonen understands it, the protests would affect the entire branch in Finland. There are approximately 9,000 haulage firms in the country, with roughly half of these owning just the one truck.
     
In all, there are something like 35,000 lorries and truck-trailer combinations in the Finnish traffic that could be affected by the calls to go slow over Midsummer.
      Lehtonen noted that the hauliers' dissatisfaction is directed primarily towards the state authorities, but also to customers who have refused to sign new agreements in the wake of rising fuel costs, which are hitting the truckers hard.
      Not long ago, the government raised fuel taxes, and Finance Minister Jyrki Katainen (National Coalition Party) stated last week that there would be no reductions in diesel tax on the table for haulage companies (see earlier article).
     
The originator of the SMS messages in not known.
      According to Turun Sanomat, messages have come from at least seven different mobile numbers around Finland.
     
Traffic in the days immediately before Midsummer (Midsummer Day is on Saturday of this week, and people celebrate the holiday from Friday onwards) is always heavy, with jams forming on major roads and at known bottlenecks on Wednesday evening and through much of Thursday and Friday.
      Many families choose this juncture to begin their annual vacation, as Finland settles into a summer doze for the month of July.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finance Minister offers no relief to small transport companies (12.6.2008)

Helsingin Sanomat