On January 1st, Denmark shall introduce a new minimum wage for all lorry drivers working within the country.
All carriers and hauliers, both Danish and foreign, will have to pay their drivers DKK 164.96 (22.15 euros) an hour while they are working in Denmark. This includes cabotage operations.
In order to ensure compliance with the regulations, foreign companies that want to operate in the country will have to report each transport service in advance to the Danish Commercial Authority online via a new system dedicated to foreign transport.
The documentation must also be available on board each lorry so that it can be presented to the police or the road traffic authorities. Compliance with the new rules will be subject to roadside checks, so having the documents at hand is important.
Meanwhile, in other news from Denmark, the CEO of the country’s haulage association has called for action to ensure that all foreign hauliers pay fees for parking and rest stops.
In an open letter, Erik Østergaard said that Danish hauliers who pay up are being disadvantaged by the foreign companies who try to get away with non-payment. Østergaard even went as far as to say “foreign trucks are above the rules in Denmark” and that the situation was “untenable”.
According to Østergaard’s letter, one of the reasons people are getting away with non-payment is that only the police have the legal authority to clamp trailers. Although the lorry can be clamped by the company running the rest stop, the trailer cannot.
Østergaard argues that some hauliers have got around this issue by hiring a “low-wage driver” to come and pick up the trailer and finish delivering the goods. Therefore, he want the rules to be changed to allow trailers to be clamped.
Photo credit: FinlayCox143 / Wikimedia Commons