PRESS RELEASE, 18.09.2019: Mobility Package 1 should not enter in trialogue without a proper assessment of its impact on EU transport market and the environment! UNTRR calls upon the new Members of TRAN to refer the three files of the Mobility Package 1 back to the European Commission and to avoid entering in trialogue

 

18.09.2019

PRESS RELEASE

Mobility Package 1 should not enter in trialogue without a proper assessment of its impact on EU transport market and the environment! UNTRR calls upon the new Members of TRAN to refer the three files of the Mobility Package 1 back to the European Commission and to avoid entering in trialogue

The Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) will decide tomorrow, 19.09.2019, the fate of the Mobility Package 1, containing 3 legislative files which will have a significant impact on the future of EU road transport market and environment!

The National Union of Road Hauliers of Romania - UNTRR calls upon the new Members of TRAN to refer the three files of the Mobility Package 1 back to the European Commission and to avoid entering in trialogue with the current Mobility Package 1, as its adoption would have a negative impact on EU single market, while also seriously affecting the EU decarbonisation objectives.  

It is important to recall that the Mobility Package 1 was not adopted by the previous European legislature, after almost 2 years of fiery debates, due to certain disruptive provisions for EU road transport industry and beyond, proposed by the former EP, by the Council and by the EC while disregarding their impact on EU transport market and our environment. It is also important to recall that despite the fact that 2 out of the 3 files of the Mobility Package 1 were rejected by the TRAN Committee earlier this year, EP plenary adopted them under political pressure but in the absence of an impact assessment for significant amendments introduced by the EP to key issues.

The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania – UNTRR has signalized to all the Members of TRAN Committee the most serious problems of the 3 files of the Mobility Package 1 (MP1), which need to be referred back to the EC for a proper assessment and revision:

1. MP1 proposals concerning the return home of the vehicle and further cabotage restrictions will hinder EU's on-going efforts to reduce the number of trucks on the road, lower fuel consumption and CO2 emissions and improve efficiency. The International Road Transport Union - IRU has addressed to the national and European decision makers an Open letter on the potential consequences of obligatory return of the truck, expressing the main concerns of our industry:

• dramatic increase of empty running and CO2 emissions: Today, most trucks return to the country of establishment of the company only once or twice per year. An obligation for these same trucks to return every three to four weeks could increase the mileage of heavy goods vehicles by 80 up to 135 million vehicle kilometres per year (45 to 75% increase). This could have a considerable impact on the empty mileage and the additional vehicle mileage could generate up to 100 000 tonnes of truck CO2 emissions per year or even more.
• contradiction to EU decarbonization policies: A change of the return policy and also further cabotage restrictions will create a direct contradiction between the EU Common Transport Policy and its decarbonisation and transport network efficiency aims. It jeopardizes the industry’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint and could discourage the road hauliers’ use of combined and multimodal transport. 

May we also signalize that the final EU consumers will also be affected by important increases in prices to the majority of the products, as forcing the trucks to return home empty will not only increase hauliers' fuel consumption but also their final cost of transport, which will have to be transferred to their clients, thus increasing the final prices for the transported goods.

Furthermore, restricting cabotage and market access is against the main objectives of the EU White Paper for Transport 2011-2020, proposing a Roadmap to a Single European Transport Area - Towards a competitive and resource efficient transport system.

UNTRR calls on the new Members of the European Parliament to refer back to the European Commission this disruptive file of Mobility Package 1, proposing modifications of the rules of access to the road transport market and profession (Regulation 1071/2009 and Regulation 1072/2009), which would force vehicles to periodically return home and restrict cabotage, increasing dramatically the CO2 emissions in EU, in direct contradiction to EU Common Transport Policy to reduce empty running and its decarbonisation and transport network efficiency aims. 

2. MP1 proposal to apply Posting of Workers Directive to international transports where hypermobile workers cross borders every day will raise significant administrative burdens for EU road hauliers performing international transports in EU, imposing them to calculate & pay different national wages for 1 driver in 1 month. Road transport companies need the same treatment for their hypermobile drivers as the merchant navy undertakings, which are excluded from the Posting of Workers Directive as regards their seagoing personnel.  

During the last years, the forced application of posting rules to international road transport has been abusively enforced by certain Western EU Member States and the European Commission launched infringement procedures against the minimum wage laws like Loi Macron in France and MiloG in Germany - details here: https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-2101_en.htm.

UNTRR, together with more than 50 professional associations from 24 EU Member States, have signed a joint declaration against the application of the Posting of Workers Directive (96/71 / EC) to international transport operations in the EU - Read the declaration here.

UNTRR calls on the new Members of the European Parliament to refer back to the European Commission the Lex Specialis proposed by Mobility Package 1, as professional drivers are mobile workers, not posted workers. Applying the Posting of Workers Directive to international transport would weaken the Single Market and negatively affect the EU growth and overall financial state, as it will increase costs of international transport operations, raising administrative barriers which will lead to a decrease in cross border trade.

3. MP1 proposal banning professional drivers to spend their regular weekly rest in the cabin disregards the significant difficulty to comply with this prohibition due to the lack of adequate resting facilities and secure parking spaces across the EU, and the difficulty to enforce it for the Member States, which was acknowledged in the Commission's impact assessment. While this proposed prohibition is justified  based on the grounds of the legal clarity, occupational health and working safety, it is rather impossible for road hauliers and their drivers to comply with it, due to the shortage of suitable parking places as demonstrated by the findings of the recent EC Study on Parking Places for Trucks, highlighting that 400.000 safe and secure parking spaces are lacking in the EU.

During the last years, the national enforcement of this ban in certain Western EU Member States led to abusive control practices of the national enforcement authorities, as signalized by UNTRR and acknowledged by the European Commission.

UNTRR calls on the new Members of the European Parliament to refer back to the European Commission this MP1 file proposing to modify Regulation 561/2009 by introducing the ban to spend regular weekly rest in the cabin, considering that the acute shortage of safe and secure truck parking areas across the EU makes it impossible to comply with this ban for majority of hauliers and drivers and also recalling the abusive controls performed by national enforcement authorities on this ban.

While the aim of Mobility Package 1 proposals, as the European Commission declared, was to ensure a fundamental modernisation of the European transport, helping the sector to stay competitive in a socially fair transition towards clean energy and digitalisation, the 3 hot files of the MP1 propose contradictory modifications of the EU legislation which jeopardize the expected fair, balanced and evidence-based approach.

The National Union of Road Hauliers of Romania - UNTRR call upon the new Members of TRAN Committee, to refer the three files of the Mobility Package 1 back to the European Commission asking for their revision based on an impact assessment of their proposals on industries, consumers and the EU Member States. We urge all the Members of TRAN to avoid entering in trialogue with these 3 files of the Mobility Package 3 which would have harmful effects on the EU Single Market, distorting the supply chains and dramatically increasing the pollution in the EU.

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The National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR) is an employers' and professional organization founded in 1990 on democratic principles, which promotes and protects nationally and internationally the interests of Romanian operators performing road transport of passengers and goods, recording from its foundation to the present over 16,000 members - operators carrying out domestic and international freight transport and passengers.