Czech truck drivers won’t be paid German wages just because they make deliveries there, according to the text that was just agreed upon by European lawmakers. Drivers from western Europe have long charged that their eastern competitors have an unnatural advantage in the fight for work because they are willing or used to working for lower pay. But while the companies that hire them won’t have to change their salary structure, they will have to improve working and safety conditions. Drivers whose schedule require more than 45 hours of rest time will have to be provided with accommodations rather than simply sleeping in their trucks. The text agreed upon by the European Parliament and the European Commission agreed upon stipulates that drivers will have to return to their home country at least once every four weeks. “Noone wants to drive their children down the D1 next to a truck with an exhausted driver who’s been on the road for 200 days,” said Katerina Konecna, a European parliamentarian from the Czech Republic. The text will require all trucks to be equipped with more sophisticated monitoring devices capable of documenting who has been driving for how long and when and where goods were delivered or picked up.
