A mature market

摘要

Poles have apparently conquered Europe's motorways. Despite some difficulties, such as the German minimum wage, they process almost one third of all road haulage in Europe, and dominate the inter-European TIR market with a share of 58% - as France's Comite National Routier established as long ago as in 2015. If a seasonal trough takes Poles out of the equation, then this can even result in partial bottlenecks in terms of load capacities - as has happened in France, where hauliers concentrate largely on the domestic market in the meantime. There may be an increasing degree of opposition to this forming in the EU, with nine states teaming up early this year to call' for the convergence of competition conditions between west and east. This initiative will not touch upon the core of the issue, however - Polish road haulier's significantly lower wage costs. One experienced market participant believes that Polish haulier's biggest challengers come from the opposite direction, anyway. "Competition from the Baltic states, Belarus and Ukraine is high; the profession of road haulier has partially collapsed in West Europe."