site.btaStudy Shows 14,000 Stand to Lose Jobs If Bulgaria's Position on Mobility Package 1 Is Not Respected

October 10 (BTA) - Fifty-three per cent of all trips of
Bulgaria's international road hauliers would be without freight
and thus without profit for the companies, and 14,000 of those
directly affected in the sector would lose their jobs, if the
EU's Mobility Package 1 is adopted without respecting Bulgaria's
 position on it. This transpired at a news conference at the
Transport, IT and Communications Ministry on Thursday with the
participation of Transport Minister Rossen Zhelyazkov and
business representatives. Presented at the news conference were
the results of a study on the Bulgarian road haulage sector,
commissioned by the Union of International Hauliers (UIH).

The study includes market research and forecast assessment of
the Mobility Package's impact on Bulgarian road haulage.

Tsvetan Alexiev, a representative of the company that conducted
the study, explained that they used their own research, publicly
 available information, and specialized sources and analyses.

Around 12,700 companies provide international road haulage, and
75 per cent of them have only up to five trucks, the analysis
shows. Those employed in the sector number 42,500 and have an
average salary of 1,750 euro.

A total of 25,800 Bulgarian trucks operated in Europe last year.
 Their average age is 3 years, while that of trucks in Europe is
 11 years, the analysts said. Around 1.5 billion euro have been
invested in the sector.

International road haulage has a market share of 2.8 billion
euro and 6 per cent of GDP.

If heavy duty trucks are obliged to return to their country
every four months, this would affect 53 per cent of all
obligatory trips from and to Bulgaria, which would generate no
profit for the companies. The losses from missed revenues would
reach 0.5 billion euro. Carbon emissions would increase, too,
and 1 per cent of their share would be at Bulgarian cars'
expense.

Minister Zhelyazkov said that Slovakia, the Czech Republic, the
Netherlands, Portugal, and Estonia are the countries from which
Bulgaria will seek support and assistance regarding Mobility
Package 1.

He also said that in 2023 there will be around 40 million euro
of administrative expenditures for preparing the various
procedures and unifying the process for Bulgarian hauliers.
There are many unclear points in the legislation's application,
he added.

UIH representative Yordan Arabadzhiev said that the 850 million
euro of expected losses for Bulgarian hauliers will be the same
for the other countries in Eastern Europe. "We are not against
Mobility Package 1: we are in favour of equality among the
separate hauliers in the EU. To this end, we will seek
constructive dialogue and a solution that works both for
Bulgarian and Dutch hauliers," he commented.

ZH/DS