Business 26 September 2026

Portugal's new fuel aid reaches every haulier. Earthmoving firms are still left out

Portugal's Council of Ministers approved compensation of up to 70% of extraordinary fuel costs from October to December for hire-and-reward freight hauliers and public bus operators. Firms that carry their own loads are not covered.

If you haul freight for other companies or run public bus services in Portugal, there is more help on the way. Thursday’s Council of Ministers approved a decree-law covering up to 70% of extraordinary fuel costs incurred between October and December. It is meant to close a gap: doubts over the EU’s de minimis state-aid rules had left some operators unsure whether they could receive the earlier packages at all.

The sixth measure since March

The government has been stacking measures since late March: a 10-cent-per-litre rebate on professional diesel until June, 30 million euros in April, paid per vehicle, a June scheme that scales with truck weight and, this month, an extension of the farm diesel rebate to December plus a new 38 million euro package paying 118 to 458 euros per goods vehicle and 420 euros per bus. The 70% compensation is the first one built for the final quarter.

The decree-law still has to be signed by the President and published, and the application rules will only be known then. The June and September schemes were run by the Institute for Mobility and Transport (IMT).

Who is still left out

Reaching every haulier is not the same as reaching every lorry. An earthmoving firm can run dozens of trucks and burn hundreds of litres a day in heavy machinery, but because it moves its own soil and aggregates it does not count as a haulier for hire. It gets nothing from this scheme or the earlier ones.

That is the sector that drove hundreds of trucks in a slow-moving convoy from Paredes to Coimbra on Friday. Infrastructure minister Miguel Pinto Luz admitted the sector had been forgotten and is meeting its representatives on Monday 28 September. They want access to professional diesel, machinery included.

Pharmaceutical distributors are in a similar spot. Their association, ADIFA, puts the extra cost at four million euros a year and has asked for professional diesel, an exemption from road tax (IUC) and toll discounts for the vans that supply pharmacies.

By Beatriz Mota

Image: Bene Riobó / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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