(02/02/06) EU-wegtransport: nieuwe regelgeving voorkomt sociale dumping

• 2006-02-02

Vandaag stemde het EP nieuwe sociale regels ter harmonisering van het wegtransport in de Unie. Chauffeurs mogen minder lang rijden en zullen vaker worden gecontroleerd. De regels zorgen er ook voor dat het concurrentievoordeel van het wegtransport verkleind wordt ten opzichte van dat via het spoor.

European road transport

New laws to fight social dumping adopted

The European parliament today adopted new laws harmonising social legislation for road transport in the European Union. Commenting on the vote, Green MEP Eva Lichtenberger (Austria) , member of the Parliament's Transport Committee, said:

"The new social legislation is a step in the right direction to fight the spread of social dumping in Europe's transport sector and to increase security on Europe's roads. At present, the conditions for truck and coach drivers are unacceptable, as they drive far too many hours, without little or no rest periods. This has significantly increased the numbers of serious accidents, in which trucks were involved. With the new legislation the situation will improve, as it sets a limit of 56 hours driving a week and a maximum of 90 hours in two weeks and a minimum rest period of 11 hours.

Of utmost importance are the now better and more frequent controls, as foreseen in the new legislation, to ensure compliance with the new rules. EU governments have to create a tight network of controls to end the exploitation of truck and coach drivers.

We are appalled that some member states are already trying to undermine the new legislation even before it has entered into force. Italy says it is incapable of introducing the now compulsory digital tachograph, a very important control instrument, due to technical problems. The Council should not accept such bad excuses and should -if necessary- not shy away from opening an infringement procedure against Italy."

Green MEP Michael Cramer (Germany) , member of the Parliament's Transport Committee, added:

"We also see a major challenge for this new regulation in overcoming the unfair conditions of competition between rail and road transport. As long as truck drivers are forced to work extremely long hours, road transport costs will be reduced at the expense of security. This systematic disadvantage of the railways increases if there are hardly any controls. Surveys show that the full compliance of social regulations for transport on the road would cut in half the competition disadvantage of the railways - in addition to more security on the roads."