French minister, Frédéric Cuvillier, has written to EC transport commissioner, Siim Kallas, demanding that he "take measures as soon as possible" to address infringements of cabotage regulations in the sector.
The letter was co-signed by Cuvillier’s counterparts in Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, Finland and Italy.
Road transport operators throughout the 28 EU member states are at present allowed to carry out a maximum of three domestic transport operations in fellow member states over a seven-day period, immediately following an international operation but operators in the western EU states and also in Scandinavia have long complained of unfair competition from lower cost base trucking companies from the Baltic states and Eastern Europe.
In May this year, Kallas bowed to pressure from road haulage federations and shelved plans to introduce a cabotage scheme without restrictions across the EU from 2014. Cuvillier has invited his counterparts "to a major conference" in Paris next spring on the theme of unfair competition in road haulage in the EU. It will debate the promotion of the harmonisation of EU regulations relating to the employment of truck drivers - rest periods and the duration of time spent behind the wheel, for example, as well as the conditions governing the admission to the occupation of road haulage operator.
Photo: Siim Kallas