In an interview with Elta, a Lithuanian media agency, Vardan Lietuvos politician Tomas Tomilinas claimed that the pressure on Lithuanian hauliers to move operations abroad is no longer there.
“Poland followed the path of Lithuania and increased the minimum social standards, and this also applies to our drivers. As a result, the pull factor is gone,” Tomilinas was quoted as saying.
Tomilinas added:
“Countries are simply competing for taxes, for the cheapness of labour. It’s a big problem because it’s competition that drives standards down. This is changing little by little, and primitive competition will soon disappear and companies will compete the way they should compete – through the quality of services, according to the classical market theory.”
The politician nonetheless also admitted that there are still numerous “shady” activities going on the sector, which is leading to undeclared business and a loss of tax revenues.
Regular readers may be aware that Lithuanian haulage firms had been setting up entities in Poland and registering vehicles there in significant numbers. A key factor in this development has been ease of access to 3rd-country labour, which is allowing Lithuanian companies to hire drivers in Poland for their Polish subsidiaries.
Some companies, like Girteka and Hegelmann, also now have bases in the west of Poland, thereby mitigating the impact of the return of trucks rule in the EU Mobility Package.
Asked to comment on the reported return of Lithuanian trucks to the country from Poland, Zenonas Buivydas of Linava, a Lithuanian haulage association, bemoaned the higher labour costs that have emerged in both countries.
In particular, he believes the minimum wage for truck drivers, which is 65% more than the standard minimum salary in Lithuania, makes Lithuanian hauliers less competitive than others in the region.
According to the Linava representative, the minimum wage in Lithuania will rise next year, and as the minimum wage for lorry drivers is pegged to that, truckers will have to be paid around €155 more for a typical month’s work.
“Neither the Polish nor the Lithuanian model is perfect, and one of them cannot be considered more appropriate or better. Both of them bring huge costs to transport companies, because it is likely that our Polish neighbors will also raise the fixed wage and will not let it stay for a long time. The only difference is that, at least for now, the amount paid to the driver in Lithuania is somewhat lower than in Poland,” Buivydas told Delphi.lt.
Photo: Koefbac, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image cropped)