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Danish haulier accused of exploiting drivers goes bust

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A controversial Danish haulier has filed for bankruptcy. The company was accused of exploiting drivers.

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For years, the company was a major player in the Scandinavian transport market, serving clients such as JYSK, the Bestseller retail group, and LEGO. In 2022, the haulier was hit with heavy fines for social dumping. Last week, the company filed for bankruptcy.

On 7 July this year, a bankruptcy petition was filed with the District Court in Kolding, Denmark. Two days later, the judge issued a ruling that affected not only the Danish firm Contrans, but also its subsidiaries Contrans Driftsmateriel and Contrans Ejendomme. Just days earlier, Henrik Holger Hansen had resigned as chairman of the board.

In its 2023 annual report, the company stated that container transport was under pressure due to factors including the wars in Ukraine and the Gaza Strip.

“In 2023, the company’s management board made a strategic decision to gradually withdraw from transport activities due to stagnation in the industry and the constantly rising costs of operating its own vehicles,” the financial report stated.

Several months of unpaid wages

Shortly after the bankruptcy filing, the Danish trade union 3F began processing wage, pension, and holiday pay claims for affected employees, submitting applications to the Lønmodtagernes Garantifond (Employee Guarantee Fund). At the time of the bankruptcy, Contrans employed 119 people, many of whom were reportedly owed up to six months’ worth of wages.

Shocking abuse exposed

Back in 2021, journalists from the union magazine 3F Fagbladet uncovered widespread exploitation of drivers working for the company. Victims included drivers from the Philippines and Eastern Europe, who were forced to live in their trucks for years and paid far below the Danish minimum wage.

In 2022, it emerged that drivers employed by the Warsaw-based Henrik Hansen Sp. z o.o.(a Polish company linked to Contrans) were earning just 15–25 kroner an hour (approx. €2–3.30), while the Danish minimum hourly wage stood at 163.5 kroner (approx. €22).

The union published testimonies from drivers who said they had lived in their truck cabs for months, or even years. One driver, Felipe, revealed he spent three years living this way, returning to the Philippines only twice during that time.

Not only were the working conditions unlawful, but the company’s operational practices also broke the law. Drivers routinely carried out illegal cabotage operations in Denmark. When complaints were raised, management responded only with brief assurances that they would “pay the fine if inspected.”

Investigations, fines, and plummeting profits

In February 2022, a retired driver formally reported the company to the police. By September, Danish authorities had searched Contrans’s headquarters in Kolding. In 2023, the haulier was fined DKK 1.2 million (approx. €160,000) for violating cabotage and driver rest regulations. Its Polish subsidiary Henrik Hansen Sp. z o.o. was fined a further DKK 750,000 (approx. €100,000).

The same year, the company posted a net loss of more than DKK 6.4 million (approx. €859,000), despite making a DKK 14.3 million profit the year before. Its financial report confirmed the winding down of its transport operations.

Political and public backlash

After the scandal broke, Danish politicians took notice. The new Minister of Transport, Trine Bramsen, was questioned over the matter, as were Contrans’s major clients, JYSK and Bestseller—both of whom demanded immediate clarification.

The Polish link

A Polish firm registered in Warsaw played a key role in Contrans’s controversial business model. It was through this company that the haulier recruited drivers from third countries and Eastern Europe, paying them in Polish złoty. According to the union, wages bore no relation to the Danish collective agreements in force.

In 2019, Contrans’s then-CEO Axel Junker admitted that the Danish embassy had supported the company in assessing the market and setting up operations in Poland. However, he denied that the company was engaged in social dumping.

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