But is this by definition negative?
Belgian wages for Eastern Europeans?
Paradoxically, the sector that is being undercut by Eastern European competition now has to look for people from there itself.
To employ them here with a Belgian contract under Belgian conditions.
A haulier from Antwerp admits that half of his drivers come from Romania.
"They earn a Belgian wage of at least 2,600 euros net per month."
They are hard workers. The only condition is that they speak English and French.
"Those guys work at times when Belgians no longer want to get out of their armchair."
Still a future for Belgians?
Whether more Belgian truckers will drive on our roads again in the future will partly depend on Belgian young people themselves.
"Nowadays we can no longer find anyone who wants to work hard."
They are interested in driving to Barcelona. That's the romantic side of the job.
But for short-haul transport, where you sometimes serve more than five customers a day, you can no longer get any Belgians interested.
And mobility in our country doesn't help either: admit it, you don't become a driver to spend more than half your time stuck in traffic jams, dixit Marc Geerts.
12/05/2017
Source: De Tijd