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Dutch interview UK firms over flagging out in Hollani
Page 6
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• by Guy Sheppard Dutch operator licensing officials have begun questioning UK hauliers whose vehicles are registered in the Netherlands to see if they comply with all the requirements for flagging out.
Campbell Baxter, MD of Baxter International BV, says he and four other companies registered in Breda were called to a meeting earlier this month, They were told that their Certificate of Professional Competence holders may be required to live in the Netherlands but everything else was said to be in order. He reports that similar investigations are underway all over the country Although Baxter still has a Scottish 0-licence, no vehicles are registered on it. His eight vehicle fleet is based in Carlisle and in recent months he has worked exclusively in the UK because of a downturn in international work.
Baxter says the official who questioned him was sympathetic to the view that CPC holders do not need to live locally, but the final decision on this will rest with the Dutch licensing authority, NIWO.
"These days, with a mobile phone and a laptop, you can plan trucks from a beach in Spain," he says. if it does mean we have to have a CPC holder in Holland that's not a problem: it's just expensive," Baxter adds that although his fleet has only been registered in the Netherlands for three years it would make no commercial sense for him to revert to a UK licence because it would cost at least £14,000 a year more in insurance alone. George Brown, managing director at G&S International By, who has flagged out most of its fleet to Holland says: "I think maybe the UK licensing authorities have been asking quite rightly that the Dutch authorities check the companies who are based there. It's something I was advocating. It was always thought of as a place to hide."
In his latest annual report Senior Traffic Commissioner Michael Betts warned that UK operators whose licences had been revoked could easily obtain replacements on the Continent. "It makes a mockery of our licensing system, is grossly unfair to legitimate operators, and has the potential to seriously undermine the new impounding legislation," he said.
The Dutch investigation conies as the European Court of Justice is to make a ruling on German haulier Andreas Hoves which is likely to have far-reaching implications for flagging out ( CM 21-27 Feb).
Hoves appealed to the European Court after German tax authorities demanded more than .£50,000 in road tax for 15 trucks he had registered in Luxembourg. Each vehicle had a permit for cabotage in Germany,
Hans Valienduuk, a Dutch lawyer who has represented more than 30 operators who have flagged out in the Netherlands, says there is nothing unusual about NIWO checking up on haulers who have flagged
out. "If it is economically legally possible to do flag then people will do it and I ( blame them for it," he adds.
Vallenduuk feels that case will give a thumbs ul flagging out.