Around 3 million drivers in France who use their vehicles for their work will be eligible for a new fuel aid scheme, the government announced yesterday.
These high-mileage drivers (gros routiers) will benefit from a fuel reduction of around 20c per litre.
A single lump-sum payment covering these costs will be made in June and it will retroactively cover fuel costs in April and May.
Eligible workers will need to either use their vehicles as part of their job or for their daily commute.
The new announcement, targeted at workers across the country, comes on top of existing aid for logistics companies and other sector-specific aid for fishers and farmers.
The government is also in the process of studying whether taxi/chauffeur drivers should be given specific aid.
Aid packages are detailed in the graphic below.
How will the scheme work?
Finance Minister Roland Lescure clarified who would be eligible for the general ’high-mileage driver’ discount on France 2 yesterday evening, following an earlier announcement by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
The scheme will apply to drivers “working at least 15 kilometers from home [so driving 30 kilometres per day in their car]... or traveling more than 8,000 kilometers per year in total,” Mr Lescure said.
There are no restrictions on the type of job a driver must do, but it is targeted largely at those who use their vehicle as part of their work, such as home-help nurses or caregivers.
Eligibility will depend on the worker’s income however, which must be below the median level for their household composition.
“For a single person earning less than €17,000 per year, you will be eligible… for a couple with two children, it's closer to €50,000 per year,” Mr Lescure added.
The government will use data already known about your household’s income from previous income declarations to determine if you are eligible.
Drivers will be able to apply for the aid by “the end of May” through a dedicated portal on the impots.gouv.fr website, although this is not yet available.
They will have to self-declare information about how much they use their vehicles, based on an honour system – the government can check information such as a household’s vehicle and income status, but not how much a car was used.
Following this, the payment will be made at a later date.
Are further schemes on the way?
The government has consistently said since the start of the fuel crisis that the cost of cutting fuel duties or offering wider discounts – amounting to billions of euros – simply could not be accounted for in the country’s budget.
By targeting the aid at those using their vehicle for purely work-related reasons, the government likely sees the new measure as a way to prevent a wider economic downturn through buoying low-income employees.
“We're sticking to a strategy based on economic activity, not a blanket handout,” said Mr Lecornu, quoted in Le Parisien, hinting that wider measures are still unlikely.
“If things were to worsen, further announcements could be made,... [but we don’t want] to spend money we don't have,” he added.
