Success story sets tongues wagging
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• by Karen Miles Trucks bearing the distinctive blue and yellow livery of Wilt Betz are becoming a familiar sight in the North-East of England. In the past three months the company has been winning business with quotes of about 15% below existing rates, according to local operators who are watching the situation with growing concern. "Betz lorries and drivers are beginning to create mini-ghettos up here," says one.
There's no doubt that the European expansion of the German giant is an amazing success story—the many hauliers who have lost business to Betz's impressive fleet over the past two or three years can testify to that.
There is plenty of evidence to suggest Betz is accomplishing his quiet invasion of the UK and other European Union states by employing large numbers of cheap eastern European drivers and eastern European-registered trucks.
Questioning
Hauliers from at least 12 of the EU's 15 member states, from Norway in the north to Portugal in the south, are complaining about Betz's gains, and inevitably some are asking if all the expansion is within EU rules. The company, which now has a workforce of 7,000, declines to discuss these allegations beyond the categorical denial it made in January from its Felixstowe site.
"We are the biggest operator in Europe...and are certainly not running an illegal operation. We have got all the necessary permits and are sticking by all the hours rules," it said.
"Our operation is an open book and everything is completely above board."
At that time Betz had about 120 UK customers, including blue-chip companies such as Procter 8, Gamble and Kodak; it was also operating thousands of trucks throughout Europe, the Middle East and Russia.
The UK Government has responded to complaints from its own hauliers; on 18 May a team of officials will go to Bonn to discuss the situation with the German government.
The UK Department of Transport says it is not concerned about legitimate return trips by eastern European-registered trucks to and from the EU, and it considers Willi Betz above board. But officials are perplexed by what appears to be a surprisingly high level of internal EU traffic being carried by east European hauliers, including Betz companies based in various eastern European countries, and by Betz's subcontractors in the region.
Initial inquiries suggest only a few thousand ECMT permits are available each year to non-EU hauliers for legitimate internal EU traffic, along with a relatively small number of bi-lateral permits allowing similar access. For example, information already supplied by the Germans shows that all of Bulgaria's hauliers, including Betz's own company in that country, are allocated just 200 internal EU journeys a year by the terms of a bi-lateral agreement between Germany and Bulgaria. There aren't many issues which unify truck drivers and their bosses, but the threat from eastern Europe has done just that. The European road transport employers' organisation, the IRU, and its union equivalent, the EST, are working together to persuade the European Commission to take a look at the issue. They have asked the EC to gather information about the national laws governing each EU country concerning the employment of non-EU truck drivers.
Differences Initial investigations show there could be enormous differences between member states, and that the alleged use of non-Ell drivers by Betz in his Germanregistered trucks could be coropletely legal. Although the British refuse work permits to non-EU drivers who want to drive British-registered trucks, it seems that the Germans and Dutch allow this cheap supply of labour temporary access to their cabs.
Solution
But change may be on the way. At the end of the year the EC plans to assess the extent of the problem posed by non-EU drivers with EU work permits— and drivers without permits who are illegally employed by EU hauliers. if the 15 governments perceive a problem the EC will "propose a solution", which could include tightening up the enforcement of work permit rules, or stopping member states handing out work permits for non-EU drivers.
An EC source promises: "The Community can act very quickly if member states think their interests are at stake."