Raw deals in Hungary by Rob Willock • Hungarocamion, the
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recently privatised transport company in Budapest, is using its old government contacts to take business from European competitors.
British owner-drivers are used to giving their consignment details to border officials, but recently they have begun to suspect that the information is being passed on to Hungarocamion so it can tender for their business.
A number of Brits have tested the theory by giving their home contact details in place of their consignor's—and Hungarocamion transport managers were soon making enquiries and offering to undercut the existing rate.
"It's a bit much," says one owner-driver. "Since privatisation the company has had far too many lorries for the work it's got, so it's looking elsewhere— but unfairly.
British ownerdrivers on international work are becoming an endangered species, dying out at an alarming rate be cause of cheap eastern European competition. Drivers working on eastern European runs are reporting that nowadays they hardly ever see another Brit. "We used to pioneer these routes," says one.
Bernie McGawley, of Warlingham freight agency Bamtran, used to have 15 international owner-drivers on his books, but now has just two. "I'll be getting out of the business soon, too," he says. "Two years ago I couldn't cope with the work. Now I'm lucky if I get three calls in a morning, and two of those will be problems."
One British company recently quoted a rate for a run into Eastern Europe at £10,500, but it was undercut by a Polish company who did it for around £5,000. "And they put a new truck on the job. But don't ask me how they can afford it," says a source.