Ministers debate non-EU drivers
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Transport minister Lord Macdonald and his German counterpart have called on the European Commission to say bow it intends to combat the illegal use of drivers from non-Ell states.
Last week Macdonald travelled to Saarbrucken, where be met the German
transport minister, Reinhard Klimmt. to discuss "a range of European transport issues-.
Afterwards, both ministers issued a statement calling on the EC to announce quickly how it intends to deal with the
use of non-EU registered drivers, which Is distorting the rates
hauliers can charge across the union.
They went on to stress the importance of enforcing the existing regulations on this matter, as well as prosecuting Infringements, and called upon the European Road Haulage Forum to discuss these and similar issues.
Although not discussed by name, companies like Willi Betz. which uses vast numbers of Bulgarian drivers to make deliveries within the EU, are known to be having a detrimental effect on rates. Established EU hauliers— In France as well as in the UK—complain they cannot compete with companies paying drivers less than half the salary of an equivalent EU resident. Although Betz's actions are not illegal, the company operates within legislative loopholes in the complex permit and quota bureaucracy to trade across the EU relatively unhindered.