Many Eastern European truck drivers drive on German autobahns. They are on the road for weeks or even months. They live in terrible conditions and often become victims of huge fraudsters, writes Deutsche Welle, adopted by Dnevnik.

A month ago, a scandal with a Polish transport company attracted the attention of the German media: drivers from Georgia and Uzbekistan blocked their employers’ trucks for days at a truck rest area near the highway in the federal state of Hess.

They demanded to receive their salaries, which had not been paid to them for months. The head of the Polish company came with his own “guard” – 18 people, who should command the respect of the drivers. The German police managed to stop the “Polish team” at the last moment.

In the end, the drivers’ strike lasted for about five weeks until their demands were met. It was announced that the Polish company succumbed to pressure from its customers, including international companies, who requested the goods. And the drivers’ problems played only a secondary role.

“They were on the road for months”

During these five weeks, the drivers lived in the trucks they used to make a living. Their case drew attention to the situation in international freight transport: workers from Georgia and Uzbekistan spent weeks, even months, on European roads, like many others employed in the field.

“What annoys me the most is that these colleagues have been on the road for months, even though this is actually prohibited under EU law,” said Reinhard Assmann, a legal expert at the German transport union and GTL Logistics.

What are the problems in Germany?

Over 70% of all cargo in Germany is transported by road. As in many other industries, there is a serious shortage of skilled personnel in the trucking sector. According to estimates, there is a shortage of up to 80,000 professional heavy truck drivers in the country.

As part of the “free movement of workers in the EU”, more and more Eastern Europeans who have signed employment contracts with companies of the Federal Republic are arriving in Germany. In 2020, one in four socially insured professional heavy truck drivers in Germany was from Eastern Europe.

“A German driver costs more than a Czech driver, a Czech driver costs more than a Hungarian driver or a Romanian driver. A Romanian driver costs more than a Ukrainian driver, a Ukrainian driver costs more than a Filipino driver. That’s why everything is moving more and more to the east,” a German traffic police officer told German public broadcaster BR.

Unclear business models

In international road transport, contracts are usually awarded to a wide network of subcontractors, often located in other EU countries. According to current estimates, there are up to 3.8 million truck drivers on EU roads. Western European companies usually transport internationally through their Eastern European subsidiaries.

“The biggest problem is that the procurement scheme is very opaque,” says Dominik John, director of Faire Mobiliät, a social organization that advises workers abroad, particularly in Bulgarian. “A lot of money is being made with these subcontractors, the truck drivers who work for them are simply being exploited because of the various conditions stipulated in the contracts,” adds Dominic John. “The mentality there is like the Wild West.”

Scattered and impossible to control

In Eastern Europe, the minimum wage is generally lower than in Germany or other Western European countries. In Eastern European countries, employers often include the cost of accommodation and meals in the salary. In fact, they should be paid in separate amounts. Therefore, drivers of Eastern European companies sleep in trucks and cook food on gas stoves in rest areas arranged along the tracks. In fact, the rule applies: if drivers from lower-wage companies make transport trips in Germany, in many cases the drivers are entitled to a higher German minimum wage.

The details of this rule are governed by the so-called EU Posting of Workers Directive, but even for lawyers these aspects are difficult to understand.

In addition, control in Germany is a rather complex task, as several institutions are responsible for it: “The police are responsible for traffic on the roads, i.e. traffic violations and possibly also for driving and rest times. Control of cargo documents is carried out by the Federal Service of Material and Technical Support and Mobile Communications (BALM). The customs office is responsible for the minimum wage, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration is responsible for working hours,” explains trade unionist Reinhard Asman.

Therefore, effective control is practically impossible, Asman notes. “Furthermore, responsibilities are distributed differently in each federal province,” says Asman.

Dominique John of Faire Mobilität insists that the working and living conditions of all truck drivers must be improved. “In Germany, for example, the parking situation for heavy goods vehicles is terrible,” he says. There are too few secured car parks – places where drivers can be sure they can spend the night without having their cargo stolen – explains Dominic John.

But sanitation and access to water are simply too expensive. “Drivers from abroad – from Poland or Romania – often tell us that when they race in Germany, they take water with them because they can’t be sure that they will have free access to water at the rest areas in Germany”.

“These are men, but there are also women in the industry, sometimes they live in trucks for weeks. It’s a situation you can’t even imagine,” commented Dominik John from Faire Mobilität.

Article by Klaus Ulrich, Deutsche Welle

Article courtesy of Rador