The Hindu Business Line : Oil tankers off the road in Tamil Nadu

PUBLIC sector oil companies in the process of renewing their contract for road transport of petroleum products in Tamil Nadu, through common tendering, are faced with sulking tanker-truckers who, aggrieved over the new hire rates, refrained from lifting the supplies from the respective depots today.

In Coimbatore, a major delivery transport contract base for oil companies, over 300 tanker-trucks including those coming under the dealer-run trucks on contract with the PSU oil companies, have abstained from lifting the petroleum products.

But sources with the three PSU oil companies — Bharat Petroleum, Indian Oil and Hindustan Petroleum — which are involved in the common industry tendering of transport contracts say they do not anticipate any dislocation in the supply chain as their retail outlets have adequate petroleum stocks to meet the situation. The officials of the three companies worked throughout yesterday (despite being a holiday) to augment stock at the petroleum retail outlets in the region, it is learnt.

The transport contractors are aggrieved that the new lowest rate quotes (or what is called the L-One rate) reportedly received by the oil companies for the ensuing contract tenure through public tenders are down by 28 per cent compared to what were given in the previous contract that expired in December 2003.

Citing the first batch of L-One rate quotes submitted by some of the transporters, the three oil companies have sought to lower the truck hire rates for 2004-06 period — both in the base rates for the free-delivery zone as well as the rate per km/per kilo litre for the distances beyond the free delivery zone — which are not agreeable and make their operations uneconomical, said Mr Sivaraj, Secretary of the Coimbatore-Nilgiris Tanker Truck Owners' Association.

The public sector oil companies contract the private tanker operators for delivery of petroleum products, mainly petrol and diesel, by road to various retail outlets from their respective depots and the contract is based on public tendering of lowest rate quotes basis received from various transport operators. The contract is valid for a block of three years.

The tanker-truck operators of Coimbatoreseeking to get the contract renewed from January 2004 say they are upset that the new L-One rate sought to be imposed on them is only Rs 450 as the minimum rate for the free-delivery zone of 40 km as against Rs 600 given in the previous contract period.

Similarly, the new hire rate for distance beyond 40 km, if the L-One rate is accepted, will be only Rs 9 per km instead of the Rs 11.04 per km. "The rate reduction has come at a time when we were in fact asking the oil companies to rise the transport hire charges by 10 per cent citing the increased cost of the fuel (diesel price) we incur of late," Mr Sivaraj told Business Line.

Enquiries with the oil companies reveal that barring a few centres such as Coimbatore, Chennai and a few other areas, the transportation of petroleum products between depots and the retail outlets has remained normal in major delivery zones such as Tirunelveli, Sankari, Karur and Madurai. In these zones, according to sources, the L-One rates for the new contract period are pegged higher than the rates offered in the previous contract period.

The sources indicate that the tendering process is still on and hence there is scope for some rapprochement in the finalisation of the contract rates for the truckers.

The three oil companies have jointly called for a meeting of the truckers to sort out the issue and it is likely that the Coimbatore- based truck operators too would be summoned for a dialogue.

More Stories on : Petroleum | Tamil Nadu

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