In response to the protest planned today by the Irish Truckers and Haulage Association, ISME is making the following requests:
- Do not block access to or egress from any PCR testing centre, vaccination centre or hospital.
- Bring someone in your truck and spend at least €100 in the shops in Dublin today. You will only replace a tiny amount of the trade they have lost. If you don’t have time to shop, then buy a voucher from them.
- Elect a spokesperson to speak for your protest to the media. People are inherently and rightly suspicious of those who hide anonymously behind social media platforms.
- If you are requested to move on by a Garda, please do so immediately and politely.
- Make way for our blue light services. The need of that person for whom an ambulance or fire engine has been called is more important than your protest.
- Appreciate the fact you live in a republic where you enjoy the right of free assembly and protest under the constitution. Do not abuse that privilege.
- The cafes and restaurants around Kildare Street and Molesworth Street and beyond have suffered the most in this pandemic and are suffering a massive loss of footfall today. They deserve your custom. Some of them are already out of business. Call into one of the remaining ones and get a coffee and a sandwich for everyone in your vehicle.
Neil McDonnell, CEO of ISME said: “We encourage hauliers to price their haulage rates correctly. Ethical customers know that fuel prices have risen and will accept a reasonable increase in rates. Otherwise, hauliers should serve them notice. The market won’t get cheaper rates elsewhere. If haulage operators don’t have a fuel price or labour cost escalator in their haulage rates, they need to include them. ISME runs courses which helps hauliers and other service providers to price their services properly.”
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Issued for ISME by Heneghan
For information
Neil McDonnell/ISME – (087) 299 5658
Nigel Heneghan – (086) 258 7206
