Monday, November 9, 2026
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Trucking & Rail Nov 9, 2026 · 8 min read

San Antonio reopens after truckers win 8%

Chile’s truck deal makes San Antonio drayage a floating cost, just as the cherry rush starts

Chile’s busiest port is open again. On Friday 6 November, independent truckers at San Antonio ended a nine-day blockade of the off-dock depots that feed the port. They won an 8% rise in transport tariffs (El Diario Santiago, 6 November). The blockade began on the night of 28 October (WSWS; Radio Universidad de Chile). It hit just as the cherry export season to China was getting under way.

Most coverage has focused on the 8%. We think that is the less important number. The lasting change is how rates will move from now on. San Antonio’s trucking rates will be updated by a formula linked to an official cost index and the price of diesel. For anyone quoting Chilean exports or imports, port trucking has gone from a fixed price to a floating one.

What the deal says

El Diario Santiago set out the terms on 6 November:

  • Transport tariffs rise 8%.
  • Rates will be updated using the Transport Cost Index (ICT) and changes in diesel prices. The ICT is published by INE, Chile’s national statistics institute.
  • Independent truckers can bid directly for the contracts of the companies that generate cargo. The aim is to reduce their reliance on middlemen.
  • The port company will run a truck enrolment system to control who gets into the port area.
  • Corfo, the state development agency, will offer loans of 2,000 to 14,000 UF to small trucking firms. The UF is an inflation-linked unit of account widely used in Chile. The money can go to working capital, new equipment and other running costs.

Valparaíso’s presidential delegate, Manuel Millones, called the deal “bastante beneficioso” (quite beneficial). On the indexation formula he said, in translation: “It is an objective polynomial that the INE determines day by day” (El Diario Santiago). “Polynomial” here simply means a weighted formula made up of several cost items.

The government mediated. Radio Universidad de Chile reported on 7 November that the talks ran through the Undersecretariat of Economy under Karlfranz Koehler. Six depot operators are named as parties: Agunsa, Contopsa, Medlog, Sitrans, DYC and CIS. One more depot had not yet joined the general agreement. The radio did not name it.

That gap matters. During the strike, WSWS reported that the truckers’ leader had named seven companies that “refuse to negotiate”. That list does not match the six signatories name for name. Until the last depot signs, one site remains outside the deal.

Why the strike happened

The truckers are a small group, but they hold a choke point. WSWS reported that small owner-operators do 90 percent of the port’s haulage work. FreshFruitPortal reported that about 40 workers had put more than 200 trucks out of service.

Their complaints were about cost. Cooperativa reported that the truckers wanted higher rates to cover fuel price rises decreed by the government of President José Antonio Kast. FreshFruitPortal added two more grievances: freight fees that had not moved, and new charges on Route 78, the highway linking the port to Santiago.

That explains the shape of the deal. A one-off 8% rise covers the past. The diesel link is meant to cover the future. If fuel prices keep rising, the truckers will not need to block the depots again to get paid for it. That is the government’s bet, and we think it is a sensible one.

How much cargo got stuck

The disruption was large for a strike by so few people. WSWS reported that more than 3,000 containers could not enter the port and a similar number could not leave. About 4,500 empty containers piled up in the terminals.

The cherry season took the hit. Cooperativa reported that the ceremony marking the start of cherry exports to China was cancelled. FreshFruitPortal said the Chinese ambassador had been expected to attend. The first Cherry Express, a fast direct sailing that carries the season’s first sea-freight cherries to China, was diverted. El Diario Santiago reported that it operated from Valparaíso instead of San Antonio. WSWS reported that a second vessel was expected to follow it there.

The stakes are high. Iván Marambio, president of the exporters’ group Frutas de Chile, said practically half of Chilean fruit is exported through San Antonio (FreshFruitPortal). During the blockade he said: “The situation is extremely serious for the industry.” After the deal, he told Radio Universidad de Chile, in translation, that it was “a very important step for our industry, especially at a key period for Chilean fruit exports”.

Koehler struck a softer tone. He said, in translation: “The operators and the union have been very responsible in not taking the fruit of all Chileans hostage.” He added that the government now expects operations to return to normal and the fruit to move through the appropriate ports (Cooperativa, 6 November).

What happened last time

This is not the first time San Antonio has stalled at the start of fruit season. In late 2019, during Chile’s wave of social unrest, the port lost more than US$4 million. Thirteen ships had been diverted to other ports by 25 November that year. San Antonio cut its 2019 volume forecast by 13%, from 1.9 million TEU to 1.65 million TEU (FreshFruitPortal, 27 November 2019, citing El Mercurio). A TEU is a twenty-foot equivalent unit, the standard container measure.

The lesson from 2019 was that carriers can move cargo to Valparaíso, but once ships are diverted, the volume takes time to come back. The cherry trade also worried about its image. In 2019 the then head of the Cherry Committee, Cristian Tagle, said the strikes affected “the confidence that buyers have in Chile.”

This time the stoppage was shorter and more contained. It hit depots and truck access, not the quay itself. And it ended with a signed deal before the main cherry peak.

The cherry numbers that set the pressure

The season is big, but smaller than first hoped. A US Department of Agriculture (USDA) report, as covered by FreshPlaza on 28 August, forecast Chilean cherry exports of 667,000 tonnes for 2026/27, against about 569,492 tonnes the season before. Since then the weather has turned. On 6 November FreshPlaza reported that Antonio Walker, president of Chile’s National Agricultural Society, now puts the crop at 115 million boxes, down from an earlier 140 million, after rain and hail. That is a cut of nearly 18%.

A smaller crop still means a lot of reefer boxes heading to China in the coming weeks. Fruit is Chile’s second-largest export sector after copper. It earned $8.2 billion and moved more than three million tonnes abroad in 2025/26 (FreshFruitPortal). Even with the lower crop estimate, San Antonio has to catch up on a nine-day gap while peak volumes are still building.

What it means for forwarders

Here is how we read it for anyone moving cargo through central Chile.

Expect slow turns for a week or two. Thousands of full containers were held on both sides of the gate. Another 4,500 empties piled up. Depots will be sorting that out while cherry reefers start to arrive. Book depot appointments early. Check free time on containers held during the strike, and ask carriers about detention and demurrage waivers. (Detention and demurrage are the daily charges for keeping a container too long outside or inside the terminal.)

Re-quote drayage now. Drayage is the short truck move between the port, the depots and the shipper’s warehouse. The base rate is up 8%. Any San Antonio trucking quote made before 6 November is out of date.

Add a diesel clause. The new formula moves with the ICT and diesel. A fixed all-in quote for a Chilean export now carries fuel risk for whoever signs it. Pass it through the way carriers pass through bunker surcharges. Make the reference date and the index clear in your contract.

Keep Valparaíso in the plan. Carriers showed they can switch the Cherry Express to Valparaíso at short notice. Some reefer bookings may stay there for the rest of the peak. Shippers with time-critical fruit should hold a back-up routing until San Antonio is clearly back to normal.

Watch the last depot. One operator has not joined the deal. If talks with it fail, a smaller blockade at that site is still possible. Ask your depot partner which side of the deal it is on.

Expect smoother access later. Truck enrolment at the port should shut out unregistered trucks. In the short term, unregistered hauliers may drop out, which could squeeze capacity. Over time, it should make gate access more predictable.

Our prediction

We expect San Antonio’s depots and terminals to clear the strike backlog by 22 November, about two weeks after the blockade lifted. We do not expect another depot blockade at San Antonio before February 2027. The diesel-linked formula gives truckers a way to get paid for fuel rises without stopping work. We also expect San Antonio drayage quotes in December to come in at least 8% above pre-strike levels, with most new contracts carrying an explicit fuel adjustment.

Sources

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