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growth spells cheap rates 1,1actr:,stim mi by Karen Miles
The European Commission hopes to double the membership of the European Union within 10 years—a move which would revolutionise the lives of Europe's hauliers and drivers.
If expansion goes ahead, hauliers of the EU's current 15 member states will be free to employ cheaper drivers from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland and Hungary—but will also find themselves under even greater pressure as hauliers from these countries achieve total freedom to compete for all EU freight.
It is currently illegal for EU hauliers to employ non-EU drivers, and eastern European hauliers are only permitted to carry out limited numbers of internal EU movements.
Enlargement would also create a customs-free zone running from the UK, Ireland and Portugal up to Estonia on Russia's north-western border, and Romania and Bulgaria on the Black Sea. This should help end the EU drivers' ritual of bribing Customs officers in eastern Europe.
The prospect of including up to 15 more states in the expanding its 370 million population to 500 million—was outlined last week by new president of the European Commission, Italian Romano Prodi.
In just over three years Prodi wants immediate contenders for EU membership—Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, Estonia and Greek Cyprus—to be ready to join the EU. These countries have been in detailed membership negotiations with EU officials for more than a year; they will be followed by Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, Latvia and Lithuania. If the first of these contenders join the EU at the beginning of 2003 it could coincide with long-running plans by the European Commission to introduce limits on the working week of Europe's truck drivers to 48 hours. Eastern European states which become part of the EU will find that their hauliers— who thrive on double-manning cheap drivers to undercut their EU competitors—will also have to conform to the Working Time Directive.
The Road Haulage Association believes that there has to be some uniformity
among EU members before more countries are added. "The French have a different interpretation of the rules for flagging out than do the British—these things need to be sorted out first," says Mike Freeman, international department head at the RHA.
• Twenty-one drivers have been charged with a series of tachograph offences following a major investigation by Cumbria Constabulary and the Vehicle Inspectorate.
It is alleged that many of the drivers committed the offences while working or subcontracting for Kirkcudbright-based Hayton Coutthard and Dunmhar Transport—two hauliers operating from the same premises.
The drivers face about 40 charges In total; the majority are for the alleged falsification of tachograph records.
The crackdown follows a previous investigation of Couithard subbie KC Williamson Haulage of Kirkpatrick Fleming. Two drivers in the latest investigation have admitted the offences and will be sentenced on 2 December. The other 19 will stand trial in Kirkcudbright on 16 December