Following the approval of the divisive new trucking rules in the European Parliament this week, Franco Azzopardi, Chairman and CEO of Express Trailers, has slammed the move as “unbelievable”.

In a post on social media, Mr Azzopardi, who has opposed the rules since the start, wrote “Nothing much to say except that we lost, even if against a steamroller force. How can this protectionist stance be given colour? They say it’s ‘green’. I say it’s as black as carbon.”

Mr Azzopardi referred to the need for logistics firms to organise return transport for their trucks to their company’s operational centre every eight weeks, causing the companies to incur extra costs. 

“Returning trucks to home base is dead waste of mileage with no cargo. It also means buying another truck for every 8 trucks in a fleet just to do the same haulage of 8 trucks. Sheer Waste,” he asserted.

“They say ‘cabotage’ is better. ‘Cabotage’? I bet few if any know what cabotage is. In Europe it prohibits an operator to do more than 3 operations (drops or collections) within 7 days in one EU country, without a 4 day absence from that country. Unbelievable.”

The CEO called into the question the motives of the EU for such a move, saying “Why on earth would the EU with an underlined ‘free movement of goods and people’ put such a restriction on us? Is it perhaps protectionism of domestic operators?”

He also criticised the claim that the Directive proposes better working conditions for drivers, asking whether that means the EU is implying that current work conditions for drivers are ‘bad’. 

“Did they ask our drivers?” he asserts. “EU simply now imposes that drivers have to go home every 4 weeks, and that they must prefer a dormitory to their own truck bunk beds to sleep in every week. Sorry. EU got it wrong.”

Maltese MEPs proposed changes to the Directive, but none of them were adopted.