If you're planning to drive in northern or central Portugal on Friday, September 25, build in some serious extra time. Hundreds of lorries are set to crawl along three major motorways in a coordinated protest against diesel prices, and the disruption could stretch for hours.
Organisers expect around 300 trucks at minimum, with hopes of hitting 500 or more. The convoy starts near Lordelo at roughly 8am, joins the A41, then rolls down the A1 towards Coimbra Sul, where it's due to arrive around 1pm. That's a five-hour slow-moving procession across some of the country's busiest roads — the very corridor most drivers use between Porto and Coimbra.
The protesters are business owners in quarrying, earthworks, excavation and soil and aggregate transport. Their argument: fuel makes up about 70% of their operating costs, and many contracts were signed before the latest price surges, leaving them to absorb increases they can no longer afford. Their lawyer, Miguel Machado Mendes, told Jornal de Notícias that participation is expected to reach or exceed 500 vehicles.
There's a chance the action spreads further south. Businesses from the Alentejo and Algarve region may join, in which case a second convoy could set off from Carregado in Alenquer and also head for Coimbra — meaning two crawl lanes converging on the same city.
The timing isn't random. Fuel prices were forecast to jump again that week, with diesel up around 8.5 cents a litre and petrol 6.5 cents, pushing averages to roughly €2.24 and €2.13 per litre. This follows an earlier go-slow near Sines this month that produced queues of more than 10 kilometres.
For travellers, the practical takeaway is simple: avoid the A1 between Porto and Coimbra on the morning and early afternoon of September 25 if you can. The A42 and A41 around Porto will also be affected from early on. If your route or airport transfer crosses that corridor, leave much earlier, consider the train — Porto to Coimbra is an easy rail hop — or shift your drive to another day. Anyone renting a car should also budget for those fuel prices, which are near record highs in Portugal. If you're filling up in Spain before crossing the border, you'll typically pay less.
