ETUI
Education & ETF Seminar
Free movement of persons and services in the European road sector
This page: Seminar contents
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Free movement of persons and services in the European road sector |
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This page: Seminar contents |
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Prague : 11-13 June 2006 (652.21.ECB)
This event had the support had of the European Union
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Beatrice Hertogs from the European Transport Workers' Federation outlined the objectives of this seminar.
To
make a survey of the state of play of the Road Transport Sector
taking into account how the Enlargement of the EU impacts on the
transport flows and how working conditions are influenced.
To examine the tools trade unions can use in order to defend the interest of the workers, as well when it comes to legislation, social dialogue and cross border networking.
To develop proposals for action plans involving the ETF and national trade union organisations.
The programme of the seminar and the ETUI-Education activities were presented by Jean-Claude Le Douaron. He emphasized that the purpose of the seminar was to exchange experiences and develop proposals but that decisions have to be taken in the national trade union bodies and/or in the ETF Road Committee.
Beatrice Hertogs presented an overview over the trends and the evolution of the road transport sector:
In
the majority of the Member-states of the EU,the road freight
transport sector accounted for a very high proportion of employment
, compared with other modes of transport.
Only CZ and SK have a higher employment figure in road passenger transport
However, DE has the highest figure in “other auxiliary transport activities”
In BE, FR, IT, UK this category follows, in number of persons employed, the road freight sector
Road freight as well as passenger transport have the highest employment figures in comparison with other modes of transport
However, we have to pay attention to the employment of ‘other auxiliary transport activities’
Those trends are important for future trade-union affiliation and action
European road transport in 2004 was dominated in tonnage terms by the 5 major economies, DE, Fr, ES, UK ,IT for which international transport is relatively minor compared with national transport
For NL,AT,DK,and especially BE, international transport was more significant
This is also true for EE,LV,LT,SLO, and LU
DE was the largest force in both intra-and extra-EU international transport
For intra-EU transport, hauliers from FR,BE,NL also have significant shares.
For extra-EU transport, SE and IT came to the fore as the other main players.
But PL and FI also emerged as significant players
Polish national carriers accounted for a very high proportion of that country’s international transport movements
a marked contrast with French hauliers , who contributed only 34% to their outgoing international transport
The largest country to country flow , when considering tonne-km was between FR and ES
Among the new MS, both the CZ and PL accounted for 3% of the total tonnes moved in intra-EU international transport (2004)
Among the countries with major international trade flows ,carriers from the Netherlands accounted for around two thirds of that country’s international tonnage
The volume of national transport, which has the largest share of transport in the EU, is still growing at an annual rate of 1,5% between 1999 and 2003
International transport is growing at an average rate of 2,5%
Road cabotage transport performance has almost doubled in 1999-2004, despite its small share in total EU transport
Cabotage is very important in some areas .in BE and FR, 2% of total domestic transport is in the hands of foreign hauliers
Definition of cabotage poses difficulties , especially the temporary character
It seems that in 2004 the EU was still trading as two separate blocs
For the new MS, penetration of their international flows comes largely from other new MS
The EU-15 had very high levels of penetration of each other’s international transport
BE,FR,IT,SE, UK all saw half or more of their international transport tonnages taken by carriers from other EU-15 countries
In terms of exchange of the two blocs, the EU-15 countries recording the highest levels of new MS penetration are DE,AT,SE, all with more than 10% of their international tonnage taken by new MS carriers.
BE,NL,FR,IE,LU,PT recorded figures less than 5%
Among the new MS, the countries more open to the EU-15 penetration are SLO and HU with 15% and CZ with 9% of their tonnage transported by hauliers from the EU-15
ATTENTION We are speaking about OPERATORS not DRIVERS !!
The flows of goods in new MS come from other new MS
However, in SE,DE, AT more than 10% of their international tonnage is taken by new carriers
SLO , HU, CZ are more “open” to carriers of the EU-15
Cabotage is increasing
Buses and coaches are the most important mode of passenger transport (except of course for the individual car)
In the majority of the Member-states of the EU,the road freight transport sector accounted for a very high proportion of employment , compared with other modes of transport.
Only CZ and SK have a higher employment figure in road passenger transport
However, DE has the highest figure in « other auxiliary transport activities «
In BE,FR,IT,UK this category follows, in number of persons employed, the road freight sector
Road freight as well as passenger transport have the highest employment figures in comparison with other modes of transport
However, we have to pay attention to the employment of ‘other auxiliary transport activities’
Those trends are important for future trade-union affiliation and action
Per-David Wennberg from the Swedish Transport Workers' Federation analysed the labour market and introduced some data about the Road Transport sector in Europe:
Gender : the sector is male-dominated
Age
and seniority: in general the sector has relatively few younger and
relatively many older employees
A small company sector /the number of employees working in companies of 0-9 employees is large, except FI, FR,NL
In some countries % of self-employed is relatively large as in DK,ES, IT. There is probably a problem with bogus self-employed in order to circumvent social legislation
Usually permanent contracts
Very few part-time contracts but in FI strike on the issue of part-time labour (10% of bus drivers)on a wage guarantee system
Lifelong training doesn’t belong to the sector culture although transporting dangerous substances or working with new technological devices requires specific training
Undeclared, illegal work and practices
High accident , disease and disability incidence rates
Persistence of muscular-skeletal problems)
Violence, lack of safe rest facilities
Exposure to noise, vibrations, air pollutants
(un-)safe loading and unloading vehicles
Prolonged sitting
Work-life balance : long working hours, high geographical mobility in particular in international transport
Stress
Lack of job autonomy
Burn-out symptoms
Roger Sealey, researcher at the British Transport and General Workers' Union analysed the threats and opportunities resulting from the emergence of logistics in transport sector.
Firms Concentrate on Core Competence – Lean Techniques
Outsourcing
Off-shoring or near shoring
Information, Computers and Technology (ITC)
Globalisation
Just-in-Time Systems
Minimum Inventory
Goods are pulled through system
Customers have power rather than producers
Transport not a core competence
Does not add value
Outsourcing exposes logistics function to market forces
However may keep some logistics functions in-house to use as a comparator
Logistics becomes a variable cost
Manufacturing moves to low cost countries in far east – off-shoring – or eastern Europe near-shoring
However still needs logistics function
But transport/logistics is a derived demand
Logistics companies highly dependent on information, computers and technology (ICT)
Capital has always been global
So what is new?
Increasingly capital mobile
Assisted by ITC
New centres of manufacturing
‘… a business planning framework for the management of material, service, information and capital flows. It includes the increasingly complex information, communication and control systems required in today's business environment.’ -- (Logistix Partners Oy, Helsinki, FI, 1996)
Road transport including road hauliers
Railways
Sea and inland waterways cargo handling facilities
Shipping lines
Pipelines
Warehousing
Air cargo
Post Offices
Railways
Freight Forwarders
Parcels networks
Third party logistics providers
Airlines
‘it is difficult to visualize accomplishing any marketing, manufacturing, or international commerce without logistics’. (Bowersox, 2002: 31)
Third-party companies perform functions that can encompass the entire logistics process, or, more commonly, selected activities within the process.
(Maltz & Ellram, 2000: 69)
Firms in the main are getting larger due to takeovers rather than organic growth
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Tier One |
Exel |
8,960.8 |
25.2% |
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Schenker |
8,042.0 |
17.3% |
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NYK |
7,975.8 |
7.0% |
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Kuehne & Nagel |
7,431.6 |
21.2% |
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DPWN |
6,786.0 |
15.4% |
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Tier Two |
Logista |
4,406.4 |
8.0% |
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TNT Logistics |
4,081.7 |
9.3% |
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Panalpina |
3,964.8 |
14.1% |
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Ryder |
3,775.9 |
7.2 |
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Geodis |
3,370.6 |
15.4% |
Companies are vulnerable
Reduced level of inventories has increased company profitability. Converted storage space into display space, storage space is now the lorry or the distribution centre.
New technology and more information have allowed corporations to hold less inventory, and move what they have faster through the system. Even the humble warehouse has become a high-technology “hub”, “distribution centre” or “strategic stocking location”.
Today many suppliers delay finalising their order until the last moment. This minimises inventory and maximises the ability to respond to the customer’s order.
A management description of modern supply network would be described as allowing goods to be produced and delivered in the right quantities, to the right place at the right time in a cost effective manner.
Uncertainty in the supply network has increased due to increased outsourcing and the off-shoring of manufacturing.
The complexity and inter-connectedness of modern supply networks increases companies’ vulnerability to disruption. This is due to the widespread adoption by industry of ‘lean’ practices.
Researchers have devoted much effort in recent years to studying the properties that will make transportations networks robust against disruption. ‘They have stressed the importance of an architecture that allows some links within a network to do the job of others that may be damaged through accidents or design. Some networks function efficiently under normal conditions through an architecture built around hubs [or nodes] that connect many different links.
Modern supply networks are not simply linear chains or processes. They are complex networks. The products and information flows travel within and between nodes in a variety of networks that link organisation, industries and economies. The total sequence of business processes, within a network of organisations that enable customer demand for a product or service to be fulfilled.
The biggest risk to business continuity may lie outside the company in the wider supply chain. The complexity and inter-connectedness of modern supply chains increase their vulnerability to disruption and the risk is created through the companies’ own decisions.
If there are too few hubs, the network can break down dramatically when one of them fails. The more hubs there are, the more robust is the network against disruption (you can reroute through another hub) the cost is redundancy – building more links than you normally need’ (Seabright 2004: 251)
Takeovers and mergers to take out overcapacity
New rules of competition – competition between supply chains
Business environment will become increasing unstable. This is due to a number of factors. Product and technology life-cycles are shortening
“Transport workers now occupy a new strategic position in the global economy”
BBC Newsnight August 2002
Understand your environment and use your strengths!
In working groups, the participants were asked to check if the facts presented square with their own national experiences and to discuss what the main consequences are for the employment and working conditions of drivers. They were also suggested to discuss what could be the main priorities for cross border trade union co-operation.
The main issues identified by the working groups were:
Recruitment and organising
Some experiences such as the multilingual information leaflet developed in the framework of the Baltic network were discussed and the question was raised in which way cross border co-operation could facilitate recruitment of international drivers.
The working conditions regarding working and driving time, poor rest facilities, long periods away from home constitute a serious H&S problem.
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A draft action plan to tackle those challenges was presented by Beatrice Hertogs and debated in working groups
On the issue of organizing and recruiting an important mean would be to map the main hubs where lorries are loaded and unloaded. This would give a quite clear picture of which companies from which countries are involved in international road transport and could be done at national level by affiliates. A dissemination of the information gathered during this kind of mapping would allow all organisations to focus their recruitment and organising efforts.
National organisations can also start to make an inventory of language skills among their members and shop stewards in order to prepare for cross border actions. If leaflets have to be distributed to international drivers from foreign countries, the contacts with those drivers would be facilitated if they can be approached by TU members speaking their own languages.
The leaflet developed in the framework of the Baltic network should be translated in all EU languages and contain the contact details of all ETF affiliates organising workers of the road transport sector.
A database containing information about EWCs in relation with the sector should be made available by the ETF.
Within the ETF affiliates should make a formal commitment, through a common resolution or agreement about mutual assistance of their members when they work in foreign countries. Information about such a commitment should be disseminated through the leaflet.
National trade union training activities should also be more focused on recruiting and organising. Exchange about successful practices should be systematised by ETF and ETUI-Education.
International drivers work quite often under conditions which constitute a serious H&S problem. Affiliates should put pressure on national authorities to step up controls about working and driving time, rest facilities and technical equipment. Effective sanctions discouraging bad employers should be adopted and an exchange of information about best practices but also about companies not respecting basic H&S requirements should be made available by ETF. At European level the issue about technical standards and rest facilities should be a main priority in the social dialogue. National affiliates should also in their collective bargaining demand that the Per Diems for drivers should be at such a level to allow them decent conditions when they are abroad.
Bogus self employment and the lack of social security coverage is an increasing way to practice social dumping and unfair competition. Information about those problems gathered at road side checks by national authorities should be made available and synthesised to be used by ETF in the social dialogue in order to push for the adoption of a social security attestation for all international drivers in Europe. This issue should also be raised in the Interregional Trade Union Committees.
In a long and medium term, affiliates should try to pressure for a common minimum standard in wages and working conditions to be achieved through legislation or collective bargaining at national level also covering SMEs in the road transport sector.
International drivers should be informed about their rights to enjoy at least the same wages and working conditions as the workforce of the host country when they are involved in cabotage. The leaflet developed in the Baltic network could be used as a basis for such an information.
