Lithuanian road haulage companies are increasingly looking for opportunities to relocate their business not only to Poland, but also to Latvia, as the lack of drivers breaks down logistics chains and customers break contracts, the Lithuanian National Road Transport Association “Linava” has announced.
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As Zenons Buivīds, the general secretary of the association, told at a press conference on Friday, due to the unfavorable business environment, more and more companies are trying to move to Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, and more recently – to Latvia as well.
According to him, the situation is especially difficult in small and medium-sized enterprises with up to half a hundred employees.
“They have been balancing on the brink of survival for a long time and are starting to look to Latvia, where the business environment is more favorable and drivers from third countries are hired. Latvia is a land of undiscovered opportunities, where conditions for survival and development are more favorable,” Buivīds added. that the losses of carriers amount to tens of millions of euros.
Vīts Bučinsks, the vice-president of the association, said that Poland is still the most attractive country for carriers, but more and more companies are looking at the Latvian market, where there is no quota system for hiring drivers and no system of daily allowances.
“In Lithuania, without quotas and incentives for hiring third-country nationals, we cannot expect these employees in a month and a half or two, while in Latvia the process is much easier and does not take more than 25 days, when the employee can already come to the company,” he explained. “In Lithuania, the Migration Department makes a decision on a temporary residence permit under an accelerated procedure within two months and collects a fee of 240 euros, while in Latvia a similar decision on 200 euros is made within ten days.”
Economist Marjus Dubņikovs has pointed out that in Poland and Latvia it is easier for road hauliers to work because the reinvested earnings are not taxed.
He called on Lithuania to create better conditions for the road transport sector, which is also regulated by the Mobility Package, which requires cars to return to their country of origin on a regular basis.
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