Discontent is spreading in Iran over higher gasoline prices, as renewed fighting in the Middle East has pushed international crude oil above $100 a barrel.
Strikes have been spreading among Iranian truck and taxi drivers in recent weeks, according to The Wall Street Journal on the 10th. Anger boiled over after the government raised gasoline prices at a time when the prolonged war had already strained household finances. On the 7th of this month, the government doubled the price of some gasoline to about $0.04 per liter. The increase applies to vehicles that fill up beyond the quota eligible for subsidized fuel.
But the change is a heavy burden for Iranians, most of whom earn barely more than $100 a month, the Journal noted. The government has cut subsidized fuel quotas over several years and raised gasoline prices this time to cope with economic strain triggered by the war and U.S. economic sanctions.
In the eastern province of Kerman, 120 taxi drivers protested the reduction in subsidized fuel quotas that day, according to Iran's truck drivers' union.
Drivers for Snapp, a delivery and ride-hailing service known as Iran's Uber, also went on strike in several regions this week. Snapp is one of Iran's largest private employers, with 3 million drivers. Dozens of Snapp drivers gathered outside the provincial governor's office in Arak, an industrial hub in western Iran, on the 7th, saying they could no longer make a living.
The same day, Snapp drivers staged a vehicle convoy protest along a main arterial road in Semnan, a city east of Tehran.
Truck drivers at Bandar port on the Strait of Hormuz, which handles most of Iran's container traffic, also warned they may strike. In a statement released by the truck drivers' union, they said the higher fuel costs mean drivers and their families must pay out of their own pockets, adding that they can no longer withstand the pressure.
Before the price increase took effect, drivers rushed to fill their tanks, leaving some service stations without fuel. Some drivers who could not find gasoline were stranded on the road.
Iranian transport operators say they are now facing fuel problems they did not encounter even during the heaviest fighting in the early stages of the war with the United States. Jalal Mousavi, vice chairman of Iran's national truck drivers' association, said in an interview with the state-run Iran Labour News Agency (ILNA) that drivers were busy hauling cargo even under missile attacks during the war and never halted the flow of freight for a single hour, but that today they must wait in long lines to buy fuel.
