Voicing the Social Conditions of Truck Drivers
Extensive sub-contracting, cross-border exploitation of different national legislation, inadequate drivers’ facilities, and driver shortage are only some of the difficult situations faced by European truck drivers. At the next working group meeting of the collaborative platform Responsible Trucking, on 27 February, project partners will listen first-hand to the experience of Polish truck driver Iwona Blecharczyk.
The road transport industry has been under scrutiny for a long time due to the working conditions of truck drivers. Logistics practices are more often than not based on quick and affordable deliveries which result in a squeeze on cost and time for the companies operating in the industry. The pressure is also aggravated by extensive sub-contracting, cross-border exploitation of different national legislation, inadequate drivers’ facilities, and driver shortage.
Faced with these challenges, several logistics and manufacturing companies joined forces in the collaborative platform Responsible Trucking, launched in June 2019 and facilitated by CSR Europe. Project partners are invited to join the next working group meeting on Thursday 27 February. We will host truck driver and blogger Iwona Blecharczyk. Iwona is currently working for a Polish transportation company handling special goods transports such as wind power plant, or construction machinery. Six years ago, she started her own vlog, reporting her daily life as a truck driver and outlining the problems and challenges that come with the job. Thanks to her passion she quickly became the voice of truck drivers with more than 200,000 followers both YouTube and Facebook.
Iwona will feed her daily experience as a truck driver into the Group’s discussions on working standards and supplier expectations. At the event, the Group will begin to draft a common set of Guiding Principles for the industry in order to increase supplier compliance and ultimately improve the working conditions of European truck drivers.
To facilitate the discussion, CSR Europe has performed an extensive benchmark review of the companies’ Codes of Conduct. First, the Codes were benchmarked against each other to assess if there were any obvious gaps. Secondly, to get a fuller understanding of the strength of the Codes, they were benchmarked against a gold standard: the Social Accountability 8000: 2014. The SA8000 covers 8 different areas with a specific set of criteria under each: Child Labour, Forced Labour, Health & Safety, Freedom of Association, Discrimination, Disciplinary Procedures, Working Hours, Remuneration.
Responsible Trucking is still accepting new members. Interested companies are invited to contact Daniel Lissoni, Responsible Trucking Project Manager.
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