The comments from Linava come just a few weeks after it complained that it had been hearing about its members being fined for Mobility Package violations several times a week.
“In the near future, as early as 2023, the new risk assessment monitoring of transport companies should enter into force, which causes considerable concern. The assessment control will most affect those companies that receive thousands of fines for not being able to fulfill the requirements of the Mobility Package (MP). When assessing the risk, the fines will threaten their operating licenses. It is feared that if the carriers fail to adapt to the requirements of the MP, and the number of fines increases, then the number of carriers forcibly leaving the market in the country will increase significantly,” said Linava, in the opening paragraph of its press release.
In the press release, V. Bučinskas, Vice President of Linava, said although the Mobility Package cannot be changed, action could be taken by the Lithuanian Government to aid the country’s haulage industry.
“If it is not possible to change the requirements of the MP, then in 2023 we must at least try harder to make appropriate decisions within Lithuania. We want to hope this year that the carriers, together with the responsible authorities, will be able to find suitable measures to control inflation, and not create additional difficulties for the transport business,” says V. Bučinskas.
Bučinskas then made it abundantly clear what he meant by “measures to control inflation”:
“One of the simplest ways to ease the situation and allow transport companies to operate more profitably would be to ease the conditions for the employment of drivers from non-EU countries, that is, to abolish the quotas currently applied to their employment. A larger number of drivers would automatically mean an increased labour force, and therefore a smaller number of idle and idle trucks in Lithuania. Carriers have wider operational opportunities, and at the same time profit and more taxes are paid to the state budget”, added the Linava Vice President.
