“It is frightening and shameful that only an incident like that at the Gräfenhausen motorway service station near Frankfurt brings the subject of distortions of competition through underpayment and violations of workers’ rights into the public eye.” This is how Dirk Engelhardt, spokesman for the board of the Federal Association of Road Haulage (BGL), comments on the current events at the service area on the A5 between Frankfurt and Darmstadt. More than 50 truck drivers from a Polish freight forwarding group have been protesting there for days because they say they have not received any wages from their employer for more than six weeks.
The situation escalated on Good Friday when the Polish haulage contractor Lukasz Mazur approached from Poland with uniformed employees from a security company and an armored car to chase away the drivers previously employed by the haulage company from Georgia and Uzbekistan and to take over the trucks that had been parked at the service area for weeks . A larger police operation prevented violent clashes. It was reported that 16 people have been arrested, including the Polish businessman himself and employees of the security service he has hired.
There is a shortage of 100,000 drivers on the German labor market
The Association of German Freight Forwarding Companies BGL also supports the protesting truck drivers with financial donations, for example to pay for the use of showers at the rest area. Because from the point of view of the BGL spokesman, unfair business practices by foreign low-cost providers on the transport market lead to dumping prices. According to the association, one kilometer of long-distance transport according to German regulations with a German articulated lorry costs between 1.50 and 2 euros, while cheap Eastern European providers could drive for 70 to 90 cents per kilometer. For six years, the BGL has been warning of massive distortions of competition, including a lack of responsibility on the part of low-cost providers due to opaque company constructs.
Clients of the Eastern European low-cost providers are the top addresses of German industry and trade, says Engelhardt. Large German forwarding companies were happy to use the work of Eastern European low-cost providers such as the Polish forwarding group, which was on strike on the A5. “German companies should ask themselves whether, on the one hand, they want to publish nice sustainability reports and, on the other hand, they want to accept conditions like those in the Polish forwarding company,” says BGL spokesman Engelhardt.
A change of strategy has taken place in the German forwarding industry under Engelhardt’s leadership in recent years: for years there have been calls for the dumping of low-cost providers to end before more drivers can then be hired at German tariffs. In the meantime, however, there is a lack of around 100,000 drivers on the German job market anyway. According to Engelhardt, freight forwarders would now like to hire drivers from the Ukraine or Georgia under German tariff conditions. In Germany, however, an obstacle is the additional qualification required for professional drivers in addition to the driver’s license, with an examination that can only be taken in German so far. Engelhardt calls for exams in other languages to be allowed.
The striking truck drivers now receive broad support, in which the DGB and the diocese of Mainz also participate. In a petition, the drivers demand that the forwarding companies of the Mazur Group Lukmaz, Agmaz and Imperia “comply with the law so that we have paid according to the legal standards”.
With the strike, German clients of the forwarding company are now also coming into focus. Deutsche Post DHL only answers general questions: “We are a global company with several thousand suppliers, all of whom are subject to a strict code of conduct. We are currently investigating the matter. In the event of an infringement, we will take appropriate measures.” Because of the allegations against the Mazur Group, the forwarders Sennder and LKW Walter have ended their cooperation with the Polish company for the time being. “We take the allegations very seriously and have stopped our cooperation with the transport companies accused of exploitation with immediate effect,” said Sennder in Berlin on request. The Austrian company LKW Walter said that the Mazur Group had given management written assurances on request that it would “keep up with all agreements”. Nevertheless, the cooperation is now suspended.
The company was surprised that there was also a truck with goods in the parking lot in Gräfenhausen that were transported for LKW Walter, a spokesman said. Because LKW Walter had entrusted this load to another freight forwarder – who apparently sold the order to the Mazur Group. Discussions would therefore also be held with the actual contractual partner. The Darmstadt public prosecutor’s office has started investigations into the Mazur Group’s attempt to force the drivers to hand over the vehicles.