“Frankly, with that in addition, it only gives me one desire: to put the key under the door”, sighs Vincent Normand, dairy farmer from Haute-Vienne. “That” is a theft of fuel which the operator’s son noticed on March 10. “We had filled up our tank at the end of February. When my son came back to see me and told me that there was no more diesel, I thought there was a filter problem. But no , the tank was empty!”, the breeder is in despair. Results of the races: 2500 liters of non-road diesel (GNR) – a fuel mainly used in the agricultural sectors or public works – went up in smoke. “The GNR is now worth 1.50 euros per liter, compared to 0.97 in February. So that makes us… nearly 4,000 euros in loss!”, He calculates, bitterly.
After filing a complaint “without too much hope”, the operator now plans to invest in a camera connected to his phone to monitor his tank. “Such a device costs around 1,000 euros. It must be added to the increase in diesel, to that of inputs for our land…, he comments. We were already getting by with difficulty before, so these more flights, it really takes a toll on morale.” The man sighs, disillusioned. “This morning, I learned that 15 kilometers from our home, another farmer saw all his tractors siphoned off, except for one. Anger is mounting.”
Due to rising prices at the pump, fuel thefts are on the rise. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 did not help matters. The phenomenon is multiplying throughout the territory, among farmers, truckers and a few individuals, but remains difficult to estimate, while not all the victims file a complaint. However, the list of miscellaneous facts is only getting longer: in Ille-et-Vilaine, at the beginning of March, 500 liters of fuel from a transport company have been stolen. Other flights carried out in Brittany by individuals have been identifiedas in Ile-de-France, particularly in Val-d’Oise. In Châteauroux, 1000 liters were siphoned off in a bus network. In Perpignan, at the end of February, association trucks Restos du Coeur were also targeted.
“From the margin that flies away”
In Aveyron, Jacques Portal, president of Transport Portal, also notes an increase in these thefts in Villefranche-de-Rouergue, a peaceful town of just over 12,000 inhabitants. “Last year, we counted one flight per month on 110 motor vehicles, he explains. Here, we are on one flight per week”. The entrepreneur is not surprised: “The frequency of these thefts always increases when prices are on the rise”. The modus operandi does not change either: stolen vehicles are most often stolen from motorway car parks, especially at night, when drivers take sleep breaks. “These siphonings rarely take place on company sites, which, in our case, are rather well monitored,” he explains.
However, this was the case for the company Transports Asta, near Rouen. On the night of Sunday March 13 to Monday March 14, nearly 700 liters of fuel were stolen from various vehicles. “We have surveillance equipment, but the thieves came from the back of the site, the portion not covered by the cameras”, says Eric Do, its manager, who goes on, exhausted: “All this is margin that flies away.” Because these thefts have very real consequences on the portfolio of truckers: “A truck has a capacity of 1400 liters in its two tanks, or 2800 euros full. With these thefts, we must already be at around ten thousand euros since the beginning of the year”, explains Jacques Portal.
“Our businesses in danger”
To these costs are added the cost of repairs. “People break the tank caps, sometimes damage more. These are additional costs,” he continues. Eric Do agrees: “It’s exhausting, it’s undermining. We try to work honestly, and this kind of thing happens. I find it shameful that we are putting our businesses in danger in this way.” For his part, Jacques Portal is all the more bitter because he has his own idea about the identity of the authors. “We must not delude ourselves: we are aware that part of the profession is attacking our reservoirs.” In this atmosphere of general mistrust, the entrepreneur advises his drivers to be careful: “Do not leave your vehicle anywhere, and always park it where there are cameras or lighting, he lists. They are also advised to avoid parking outside when they have filled up.”
This evidence was recently taken up by the national gendarmerie. On Facebook, the local brigades distill advice for individuals and professionals: avoid motorway service areas, check that your vehicle is fitted with a lockable cap or an anti-theft system… “We do not observe for the moment only a slight increase in these fuel thefts, but we prefer prevention than cure”, we are told within the police. In Aube, Friday March 11, the gendarmerie went so far as to control the fuel of vehicles in a joint operation with customs. “We have so far not spotted the use of GNR fuel, which is prohibited for diesel vehicles, in the cars checked. But we will regularly renew this operation in the future”, tells us an officer. Objective: to identify possible larceny, and, perhaps, to trace the trail of offenders. Because if prices at the pump continue to soar, it is not excluded that resale networks are set up. A new parallel economy.