Artist: Ahmad Barakizadeh
By Kayhan Life Staff
Protests in Iran have blighted the clerical regime in recent years. Now, the state is grappling with a nationwide strike by truck drivers that has entered its second week, bringing freight operations to a grinding halt and severely disrupting supply chains across the country.
The unrest began on May 18 in the port city of Bandar Abbas, where truck drivers staged a walkout at freight yards. Their grievances include inadequate wages, soaring insurance costs, deteriorating road safety conditions, and an impending increase in fuel prices that threatens their livelihoods.
With loading docks across the country, including from Tehran’s main terminal coming to a standstill, essential cargo transport has all but stopped, sparking fears of looming shortages and delays.
In Iran, truck drivers represent one of the largest occupational groups responsible for transporting 92 percent of the nation’s goods, including fuel, food, and a range of agricultural and industrial products. Unlike in many Western countries, where trucking companies dominate the industry, approximately 80 percent of trucks in Iran are owned by individual private operators. Official statistics indicate that approximately half a million drivers are engaged in this profession, personally managing the loading and transportation of goods through various cargo terminals and transportation companies.
The ongoing strikes are poised to exacerbate the already challenging freight transport conditions in Iran following the explosion at the principal port in Bandar Abbas on April 26 that resulted in numerous fatalities among drivers and severely damaged a large number of vehicles. The port handled 85 percent of Iran’s container traffic and a substantial portion of its oil exports.
Support for the truck drivers is growing, with farmers, bakers, civil society groups, and ordinary citizens standing in solidarity. High-profile figures, including Prince Reza Pahlavi, iconic political prisoner Ms. Fatemeh Sepehri, Nobel Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, and award-winning film director Jafar Panahi, have voiced their backing for the drivers’ cause.
