Casablanca Suspends Ban on Heavy Trucks After Transport Union Pressure

The authorities in Casablanca have postponed their decision, confirmed the Moroccan Federation of Road Transport to Ports (FMTRP) in a communication sent on Monday to professionals in the sector. The tensions that arose after the announcement of this measure, deemed arbitrary, brutal and hasty by the road transport unions, have prompted the authorities to suspend its implementation, relays Barlamane.

Several unions and professional associations had threatened to paralyze the port of the city, stressing that the implementation of this measure, without providing any credible alternative, constitutes a major obstacle to the exercise of their activity and the fluidity of the flow of goods to the industrial and logistics areas of the economic capital. A warning strike was planned for this Wednesday, February 19.

On its side, the Casablanca municipality plans to take a measure to reduce the circulation of heavy goods vehicles on the main arteries of the city, in order to improve traffic flow in the metropolis. Thus, trucks will be able to use the road connecting the port to the highway by bypassing the city center through the Aïn Sebaâ district, built at a cost of nearly one billion dirhams and partially operational, explains Ahmed Afilal, vice-president of the Casablanca City Council.

In addition to this bypass road, the authorities plan to install logistics platforms on the outskirts of the city, to which the loads of heavy goods vehicles would be transferred to light vehicles. Transport professionals reject this new measure, arguing that it will negatively affect the logistics chain, and in turn, the local and national economy.