The little cute Lithuanian entrepreneurship - paying much lower wages than the market prices and this way competing with the West - is coming to an end

 "The new provisions of the Mobility Package will come into force in February, which will bring significant changes in the operations of carriers and will be very unfavorable for Lithuanian companies.

 

    Part of the provisions of the Mobility Package, mainly relating to the regulation of drivers' working and rest time, have already entered into force last year, and another part will enter into force next month. From February 2. carriers will have to comply with the new rules on the posting of drivers and the calculation of remuneration.

 

    However, the requirement to return each truck to the country of registration every eight weeks is expected with greater concern on 22 February.

 

    However, Povilas Drižas Delfi, Secretary General of the International Transport and Logistics Alliance, which unites the largest Lithuanian transport companies, says that he still hopes that the European Commission will abandon the latter provision. According to him, the periodic return of trucks would be useless for neither Europe nor Lithuania, let alone the transport companies themselves.

 

    "Although there is less than a month left, there is still some hope. We are working on this issue both directly with the European Commission and with the Government of Lithuania,” - says P. Drižas.

 

    According to him, the positive news reached the country's carriers after the meeting of the EU Environment Council at the end of December. P. Drižas was then informed that decisions on the periodic return of tugs were still possible, although what and when they could be made has not been specifically stated so far.

 

    However, Mr Drižas notes that if the requirement to return trucks to the countries of registration every eight weeks is not lifted, the consequences for the logistics sector will be dire. As a result, the costs of Lithuanian transport companies alone would increase by more than 1 billion euros each year. Despite the fact that many companies have started to relocate part of their activities to other countries closer to the center of the European Union in preparation for change.

 

    "However, the entire Lithuanian transport business will still not move out. And the European Commission itself has estimated that the mandatory return of vehicles will increase the cost per tractor by about 10 thousand per year." - says the he.

 

    He also argues that not only would the financial burden on businesses increase, but that the long-established road supply chain would become unbalanced, as many trucks would travel empty to countries where they are registered instead of transporting goods.

 

    "If this requirement enters into force, about 1,000 additional trucks will cross the Lithuanian border every day, which will usually be unladen," - says P. Drižas.

 

    The benefits are only for Poland

 

    Sigitas Žilius, the head of the transport company Krautoma and the general secretary of the Lithuanian Carriers' Union, does not believe that the European Commission will withdraw the requirement to return tugs to the countries of registration, because the lobbying of major EU carriers to restrict

 

    Therefore, according to S. Žilius, the only hope left is the Court of Justice of the EU, to which Lithuania and almost ten other countries have appealed part of the provisions of the Mobility Package.

 

    "Great countries want to create uncomfortable conditions for the transport of Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria and other countries will behave selfishly and will not change their opinion. Therefore, I believe that the Romanian Commissioner for Transport, Adina Valean, will not raise this issue at all and will await a court ruling. Because if the question arises, there is a danger that there will be only more restrictions. The chances of something happening before the ruling of the Court of Justice are almost zero," -  he said.

 

    According to S. Žilius, there is not much cargo to and from Lithuania, therefore, with the flow of forcibly returned trucks and the increase in the supply of transport on the routes between us and the West, transportation prices will inevitably fall, which may be disastrous for some of our country's companies.

 

    "It is true that in the long run, transportation prices in Europe will have to grow, because when many trucks leave for Lithuania or Poland, Westerners will face problems in exporting and importing their goods. But some companies may not get it,” -says the head of Krautoma.

 

    According to S. Žilius, Lithuania, as a state, could still benefit from the mandatory return of trucks, if all that flow of returning and departing vehicles were refueled in our country. However, this will not happen either, because if Poland reduces its excise duty on diesel, all the money spent on fuel will be spent in Poland. At that time, Lithuania intends to increase excise duty.

 

    “Companies that consume a lot of fuel that belongs to associations get good prices, but the difference is still big. For example, in December, the price of diesel for my company in Lithuania was 1.06 euros and in Poland 0.99 euros. If we bought about 50 thousand liters of fuel  in Lithuania, that is the amount that will be added in Poland now ” - explains the businessman.

 

    He is ironic that because of this situation, Poland will fill its budget with taxes on fuel sales, and Lithuania will be able to show that it is meeting its green targets. The same trucks, forcibly driven home, will pollute our country, only by burning Polish diesel.

 

    "The government says it will collect less excise duty, but will meet the green exchange rate targets, will not have to buy emission permits, maybe even sell them to other countries. But the pollution will not disappear, such a strange green course", -  S. Žilius is amused.

 

    Pollution would increase significantly

 

    The fact that the requirement to return trucks periodically to the countries of registration is, to put it mildly, contrary to the objectives of the green course is acknowledged by the European Commission itself.

 

    A study commissioned by her last year showed that the mandatory return of trucks to the country of registration could lead to an additional  2.874 billion kilometers a year, resulting in additional emissions of up to 2.9 million tons of CO2.

 

    The EC 's conclusions also suggest that, under the most likely scenario, the requirement to return a lorry alone would increase the number of empty journeys on EU roads to 1.9 million a year, or 2% all international transport operations.

 

    True, all these arguments are not new. Both the carriers themselves and some EU countries used them when the Mobility Package was still under discussion, but the European Parliament, which awarded the document, was not convinced."

Since cheating with pay for the labor Lithuanian companies will go bankrupt, the damage from moving around EU empty Lithuanian trucks will be zero.