The Danish Parliament adopted the Drivers Remuneration Act. The regulations will cover foreign truckers carrying out, among others, cabotage operations. The new regulations will enter into force next year.
On 1 January 2021, the new Danish Drivers Remuneration Act, adopted by Parliament on 9 June, will come into force. The aim of the new law, which the Danish government had been working on for several months, is, as legislators argue, to ensure good working conditions for Danish truckers and for foreign companies to compete on equal terms.
Under the new rules, the minimum wage will apply to drivers carrying out national transport, cabotage and road part of combined transport in Denmark. The regulations will also cover foreign transport companies and their employees.
This means that foreign carriers carrying out cabotage on Danish territory will have to pay drivers for these operations at the hourly rate set by the national collective agreement for the transport sector.
The Danish Ministry of Transport is about to present more detailed rules on minimum rates. The new rules will not cover international transport and transport operations carried out by vehicles under 3.5 t.
New obligations and high fines
Foreign transport companies, apart from calculating the drivers’ salaries for the transport operations mentioned above, will be subject to other obligations.
This includes the need to register with a special government register and declare the transport covered by the minimum wage rules.
For failing to register or incorrectly reporting a cabotage operation, a fine of DKK 10,000 will be imposed on the carrier. If it is found during the check that the driver does not receive an adequate wage for cabotage in Denmark, the penalty will be much higher, at least DKK 35,000.
Checks will be carried out by both the police and a special administrative body. In certain cases, the police will be able to stop the driver from continuing his journey.
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