In a Facebook post published yesterday evening, Stockholm Traffic Police uploaded a photo of a sorry-looking cab. The image was accompanied with the opening line “Believe it or not … this is a workplace and a ‘home’ for a truck driver.”
The post then goes on to explain that the police are “beginning to see an increasingly clear trend that Swedish vehicles have begun to use staff from low-income countries.” The traffic police added that they have had to take care of foreign drivers with no Swedish residency who are illegally employed by Swedish companies “on several occasions”.
In the case connected to the photo, the police said that the trucker’s employer was a Swedish haulier and that the driver had presented an employment contract worth 15,000 SEK (roughly €1,455) a month.
Depending on the number of hours the driver had worked, the salary may have been competitive in his/her country of origin. However, in a country like Sweden with high living costs, the salary is definitely on the lower end.
According to a survey from March 2021 published on the Statista website, the aforementioned 15,000 SEK salary is among the lowest received by lorry drivers in the country. The data shows that only 1.4% of truckers in Sweden earn between 14,000 and 16.000 SEK a month. The vast majority (more than 2/3) have monthly salaries that range between 20,000 and 26,000 SEK, with over 26% earning between 26,000 and 30,000 SEK.
According to the police, the driver stopped during the check “lived in the cab” and “in misery”. The police’s post finished with the words “this assignment gives us the power to work on this every day of the week!”.