Mobility Package – EU
How Brussels is completely (or at least partially) missing the proverbial mark.
CO2 emissions must be drastically reduced (40% by 2030 compared to 1990), our energy must become increasingly sustainable with wind turbines and solar panels, from 2030 all new cars leaving the factory must be electrically powered (hydrogen or battery), and livestock numbers must be halved to significantly reduce nitrogen. Global warming must be reduced and the rise in sea levels slowed. Europe wants to lead the way in sustainability and aims to become completely climate-neutral in the short term. How does the Mobility Package align with this?
The Mobility Package was established to create a transport sector with better social conditions for drivers. In itself, a noble goal! However, from the perspective of sustainability and becoming climate-neutral, I understand very little about several rules in this new Mobility Package.
Return Home Vehicle
Part of these new European transport rules is that all trucks must return to the country where the vehicle is registered every 8 weeks.
As everyone knows, many Eastern European drivers operate throughout Europe. In 2020, nearly 100,000 drivers from Poland and another 150,000 drivers from other EU member states were active in the Netherlands. This means that every 8 weeks, 100,000 trucks must drive back and forth to Poland (largely without cargo) to comply with the new rules. From Rotterdam to the Polish border is over 800 kilometers (1,600 kilometers round trip).
A quick and simple calculation brings us to 1,040,000,000 kilometers of ‘driving back and forth’ per year for Polish drivers in the Netherlands alone. This is equivalent to driving around the world 26,000 times and over 900,000,000 kg of CO2 emissions (based on diesel) just to comply with the new rules from Brussels. This calculation only concerns Polish drivers in the Netherlands, let alone all other foreign drivers spread across Europe! This surely cannot be the intention. In my view, Brussels is completely missing the mark here.
Cabotage
Cabotage rules have been in place for some time, but within EU member states, drivers were previously allowed to drive virtually without restriction. Cabotage involves the transport of goods within the borders of a specific country, where that country is not the driver’s home country.
From now on, routes must be literally pieced together like a puzzle, as each driver is only allowed to make 3 trips within a maximum of 7 days per member state, followed by a mandatory 4-day “cooling-off” period in that member state. Our own drivers operate within the EU in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. It is becoming a bizarre puzzle to create a schedule per driver per member state that ensures they only do 3 trips and then have to ‘cool off’ for 4 days. For planners in the industry, this is also a driver for increased workload.
In my opinion, this rule does not contribute in any way to improving drivers’ working conditions and only hinders transport between the various member states in Europe.
Working conditions for drivers
Let me end on a positive note, because fundamentally, there are many good things about the Mobility Package. Ensuring fair pay for drivers, sufficient rest, work-life balance, and an improvement in driver facilities are all things I can only encourage.
Drivers also have families at home, so they must be given the opportunity to be home with reasonable regularity. In the new Mobility Package, this becomes an obligation for the employer, who must ensure that their employees are home every 3 or 4 weeks. Fortunately, spending months on the road and sleeping in the cab is now a thing of the past in Europe.
The transport sector is crucial to society, and drivers form the backbone of the industry. It is only right that there is good and fair compensation for all drivers in Europe. Ultimately, we must all do our part!