Last year, I brought up this EU idea floating around on truckers. The basic idea was that you (as a truck driver) would be paid money to sleep the night in a hotel, and NOT in the cab of your vehicle. So this practice, as you see literally thousands of truckers in Germany in autobahn parking lots....would just come to an end.
Part of this story revolves around eastern countries where the truckers are paid less money, and use German/French roads for deliveries. It's common practice for truckers to sleep in their vehicles.
Well....today, the EU wrapped up this legislation. N-TV covered the basic story.
For the short-haul truckers....there's not much of a change.
For the long-haul folks....you can't sleep overnight in the cab. Your company has to pay for a hotel.
The limited number of hotels along the autobahns? You could bring up this problem but no one really wants to discuss it.
On top of that trucker wages have to be adjusted (the lesser companies in Romania or Bulgaria) have to pay more for the trucker salary.
Period of adjustment? 18 months.
The odds that this will be accepted? My guess is that some Germans living near the autobahns will figure out a business-place where you can pull off the autobahn....park your vehicle in a private lot for 20 Euro a night, and sleep in the vehicle, with a shower facility and coffee shop as part of the deal. Police action? Maybe, but on private property, you'd have to have a judge sign off on this search warrant and find some illegal action going on.
All of this, if you haven't figured it out....will result in higher trucking costs, and come back to you the consumer in the end.
No comments:
Post a Comment