Ezequiel Horrach is the president of the freight transport association in the Balearics. This is a sector which has experienced radically changed working conditions over the past decade because of population and tourism growth, which suffers from deficient infrastructure and also has a big problem with recruiting and retaining drivers.
In urban centres, he says, there are no places to unload because loading and unloading areas are occupied or there aren't enough of them. "Drivers end up going round in circles, further clogging up the roads and taking longer to deliver. And things just keep getting worse.
"Most town halls don't even have a list of their loading and unloading areas. We raised this with FELIB (the town halls' federation) but gave up because we weren't making any progress. In Soller, for example, they prohibited us from parking in front of the main square to unload. Now we have to do so from the upper part of the street, which creates a safety problem. As president, I have to tell drivers not to do this. If goods don't reach stores, owners should complain to the mayor.
"People always take out their frustrations on the drivers, and there comes a point when the drivers have had enough. The young guys especially tell you they can't take it anymore. There's a great need to hire, but this involves a large investment, and you also have to consider that driving schools are overstretched, which makes the process much longer. Our greatest asset is the driver, and the big problem is that drivers don't want to continue because they're stressed out.
"A solution is to hire ready-trained professionals from abroad, but the problem then is that we have to guarantee housing, a condition that comes with the contract. What housing can you offer if we don't even have enough for our own staff? It's not easy."
Horrach would like there to be a central logistics centre that all drivers could use. Ideally, this would be between Palma Port and the airport. Proposals have been made to the Balearic Government, but meanwhile he fears that changes to operations at the Dique del Oeste in Palma will just create more problems.
"The traffic jams are going to be enormous. They'll be severe on the Via Cintura. The problem already exists and it's going to get worse. It won't just affect trucks but mobility in general. The authorities seem to have good intentions, but action needs to be taken now because we're being overwhelmed."
The greatest problems arise when the tourism season starts. "By Easter, all the hotels have to be set up and have all their goods on hand. There's a huge amount of stock to distribute, and every year we're more overwhelmed. The infrastructure isn't sufficient, and people wait until the last minute. We can't live with the constant stress of customers wanting everything 'right now'."
Horrach estimates that, when taking everything into account, transporting goods to Mallorca and the Balearics costs three and a half times more than moving them on the mainland. This cost will have to be passed on in the final price, just like wage increases. "Ultimately, the consumer will pay for all these problems, and they are ones that are only going to get worse."