The Council of Ministers has given the green light to a new Royal Decree-Law that establishes that road freight transport rates be adjusted automatically when the cost of fuels experiences a 5% increase, with the aim of ensuring that fluctuations in fuel prices are effectively passed on to the transport cost.
At the press conference following Tuesday's Council meeting, the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Óscar Puente, has indicated that this initiative responds to the exceptional situation derived from the conflict in the Middle East, which has made fuels more expensive and is impacting the transport sector, mostly made up of small and medium-sized enterprises.
The new provisions cover both road freight transport and rail and maritime transport, and complement those already included in Royal Decree-Law 7/2026, approved on March 20, in which a bonus of 20 cents per liter of fuel and other direct aid aimed at transporters was set.
Mandatory inspection in road transport
In relation to the first line of action, it focuses on road freight transport, an area in which the Ministry has maintained a negotiation process with the National Road Transport Committee (CNTC), with which it has closed the agreement on these measures.
In this way, the Royal Decree-Law strengthens the mandatory and automatic nature of the update of the transport price when changes in the cost of fuel are registered, which must be expressly reflected in the invoice, while incorporating a specific sanctioning regime for cases of non-compliance.
Railway mode
The second block of measures is aimed at freight rail transport, for which a line of direct aid is enabled in 2026 intended to compensate for the additional cost of fuel in diesel locomotives.
These aids will be 15,000 euros for each locomotive in service, with a global allocation of 3.15 million euros, with the purpose of avoiding a decrease in the competitiveness of the railway against other modes of transport and ensuring its permanence within the logistics chain.
Maritime scope
The third axis focuses on maritime transport, for which the initially planned allocation of 30 million euros is increased by 7 million euros, with the aim of expressly including pure cargo services between peninsular ports and those of the Balearic and Canary archipelagos, of Ceuta and Melilla, as well as between ports of the Archipelagos themselves, adding them to the services already contemplated in Royal Decree-Law 7/2026.
Alongside these main measures, the decree incorporates adjustments and clarifications in the current regulatory framework, such as the inclusion of certain groups in the aid system approved in the previous regulation (eurotaxis or taxis adapted for people with reduced mobility) and the adaptation of the measures to territories with specific particularities such as Ceuta and Melilla.