Bussiness travellers pay extra to travell business or 1st class and get special treatment such as edible food, extra leg room and priority boarding!
Trucks pay extra for travvelling on most motorways in Europe and get no special treatment at all, in fact they get treat worse than people flying cattle class on ryanair.
A 6 hour journey through south of Germany last week cost my company 75 euros just in maut fees, and what did me or the company get in return for paying this premium? overtaking bans, road works and the option of being pulled by BAG and maybe fined for some silly technicallity that the officer could think of. (No I didn’t get a pull, but could have )
What I really want to know is, why are haulage operators still putting up with these hikes in taxes? why don’t they grow a pair and say to these greedy european governments enough is enough? we can’t keep absorbing these costs and keep making a profit. No other industry is so highly taxed and regulated. Drivers can be fined at the drop of a hat for the most simple of mistakes, yes I know they say it’s in the name of road safety, but statistically car drivers are more likeley to cause accidents through lack of experience or just plain stupidity.
I bet if the big guns in europes haulage industry made a stance and said to the gravy trainers in Brussels listen [zb], if you don’t back off and give us a break, we are going to take our trucks off the road for a week, Brussells would [zb] themselves, it would make the Greece problem look like dellboy losing a pony on a load of dodgy watches. I have a feeling that the high cost of transport is a large factor in greece’s problem.
Through the low wages we are paid for a so called proffessional occupation, we are paying first class premiums and getting second class service.