Lula Signs Law Making Minimum Freight Rates Binding

Overview

• President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed the conversion into law on Wednesday, August 5, formalizing a binding minimum freight table and stronger oversight by the Agência Nacional de Transportes Terrestres (ANTT).
• The law requires each transport operation to be registered with a CIOT code and forces ANTT to republish freight tables within three business days when fuel prices move 5% or more.
• Penalties for hiring freight below the legal floor were tightened to include fines up to R$1 million, suspension or cancellation of transporter registrations, and repeated-offender escalations that also reach intermediaries and digital freight platforms.
• The Ministry of Transport recommended vetoing six congressional insertions, including an amnesty for 2022 blockade fines and changes to tacograph rules, and reporting differs on which vetoes were applied pending publication in the Diário Oficial da União.
• The measure responds to trucker demands for income protection after diesel-price shocks while raising concerns from shippers and industry groups about higher logistics costs, and it creates support programs such as Procargas for fleet renewal and driver infrastructure.