Skip to main content

EU member states call for action on low paid truck drivers

Transport ministers from eight EU countries and Norway met in Paris have called for the introduction of fairer social rules to govern road transport before the sector is opened up to greater liberalisation, according to EurActiv France. France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Sweden and Norway met this week to adopt a joint declaration calling for the creation of a common market for transport, in order to safeguard workers’ rights, in particular Eastern Europe drivers who deliver g
February 3, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
Transport ministers from eight EU countries and Norway met in Paris have called for the introduction of fairer social rules to govern road transport before the sector is opened up to greater liberalisation, according to EurActiv France.

France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Austria, Luxembourg, Belgium, Sweden and Norway met this week to adopt a joint declaration calling for the creation of a common market for transport, in order to safeguard workers’ rights, in particular Eastern Europe drivers who deliver goods seemingly non-stop to all four corners of the continent and with terrible working conditions .

“Professional drivers have become road slaves,” Alain Vidalies, the French transport minister, told the press after Tuesday’s meeting.

“These countries came together in Paris today and decided to act together to end unfair competition and the degradation of the living standards of professional drivers in the road transport sector,” he added.

The question of unfair competition and social dumping in the goods transport sector is an incendiary issue between the EU’s eastern member states, which are the biggest suppliers of low-cost drivers, and their western partners. Unfair competition from the East is gradually forcing western European transport companies out of business.

Related Content

  • November 3, 2014
    German road toll to cost foreign drivers up to €130 a year
    The German government has introduced a controversial road toll which will force foreign car drivers to pay up to €130 (US$162) a year for using Germany's autobahn motorways.
  • January 30, 2012
    Cross border enforcement a logical step
    The logic supporting a cross-border enforcement Directive for the European Union (EU) is both detailed and compelling. The White Paper on European transport policy published in 2001 included the ambitious objective of reducing by 50 per cent by 2010 the number of people killed on the roads of the EU. But since 2005 the reduction in the number of road deaths has been slowing down: overall, the period from 2001 until 2009 saw the number of fatalities decrease by 36 per cent. According to Community indicators,
  • March 11, 2016
    The FIA’s formula for future mobility
    The FIA’s Region I president Thierry Willemarck tells Colin Sowman about his organisation’s campaigning work for the rights of road users and mobility for all. The Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile may be best known as the FIA and the governing body for world motor sport - particularly Formula 1 - but its influence spreads far wider than the racetrack. The organisation was founded in 1904 with a remit to safeguard the rights and promote the interests of motorists and motor sport across the world. No
  • June 29, 2017
    EU proposes to spend €2.7 billion for 152 transport projects
    The European Commission is proposing to invest US$3 billion (€2.7 billion) in 152 key transport projects that support competitive, clean and connected mobility in Europe.