Speeches: Valery Demtschuk, President D-Trans, Russian Federation

7th IRU East-West Road Transport Conference Budapest, 15-16 May 2003 Budapest Congress Centre (BCC), Alkotas u. 63-67 - 1123 Budapest, Hungary

Valery Demtschuk
President D-Trans, Russian Federation

Today I am personally introducing one of Russia's international hauliers - 'D-Trans'. 10 - 15 years ago Russia was part of the international hauliers' market using 'Sovtransavto', a state run business. With the advent of market considerations and the emergence of private businesses, international road haulage companies began to spring up. Today there are more than 1000 of them in Russia.
From 1990 - 1997 western hauliers also began to take an active part in cultivating Russian regions. Many Italian, Dutch, German and French hauliers started to travel to us in Russia, but, unfortunately, at the present time it is very rare to see vehicles from western countries on Russian roads. It would appear that from the point of view of competition for us, Russian hauliers, this is not altogether bad, but we are worried about such a position and think that there is no future if this situation continues.

As I see it, the rapid growth of private Russian companies on the European international hauliers' market has made western countries feel uncomfortable. A stream of goods vehicles of dubious quality and with badly trained drivers have poured into Europe. Just from Russia alone, each month about thirty thousand lorries and more than thirty thousand drivers arrive in Europe. But the lorry - this small factory with its ecology is a real threat to the safety of the environment and staff with their own ways of thinking and professional training.We, Russian hauliers, value the role of the IRU highly in the process of rapprochement and the implementation of mutual operations where Russia's international hauliers deal with European countries and these countries take part in the transportation process in Russia. I think that many will agree that our European Union, and now already the world-wide union, was a sort of prototype EU. Members of our Union were the first to begin to simplify borders and our relations began to be built on mutual trust and understanding. If you assess the situation today, then developments resulting from the change in attitude of the former USSR and Comecon countries towards the EU, are spontaneously influencing the state of affairs in international road hauliers not only in Russia but in all European countries.
I would like to look at this question and to talk on behalf of the primary source:

First of all, the role of the IRU in establishing a single boundary between CIS and EU countries is growing considerably. I think that our union must consolidate its position as an international organisation, acting not only as a guarantor for the provision of law and order in the transfer of freight between countries but also to be an organisation that defends the interests of members of our union.

Today associations of countries taking part in agreements cannot always create the conditions in their own country for defending the interests of its hauliers and of course the hauliers of other states who are members of the union. Weak - we must learn from the strong, the young must always listen to the old, rules must be for all, without, of course, affecting national interests.

To my great regret, some questions get more and more complicated - for example the question of visas. Countries which are just about to join the EU are introducing a visa system with Russia in advance and we will be forced to seek invitations, pay considerable sums and waste time. How many times has the question been raised that for drivers the TIR carnet must be the most important pass. Germany, a founder member of the EU, is constantly making conditions for obtaining visas more difficult. The time for issuing a visa after the passport is received at the consulate is a minimum of 3 weeks.A more serious question is safety conditions for our drivers and loads. According to the statistics on average in a year in Russia there are 15 armed assaults on foreign drivers (in Poland - 5). Not only do people die, the load and the vehicles disappear, hauliers are obliged to pay customs duties and fines for the loss of the load. But our union is not taking part in the fight for justice and common sense. Unfortunately, my company lost 3 vehicles and consequently loads in Poland. A paradoxical situation - it turns out that figuratively speaking, they met me on the road in Poland, beat me, but if I don't drive they would kill me, take the money, clothes, boots and the Polish government will still make me or my employer pay for this. We went through all the courts of Poland, wrote a letter to the President but nothing changed and as well as that they deprived us of the right to take loads through Polish territory under the TIR system.

Ladies and gentlemen, you all remember December 2002 when Russian hauliers had the real threat of being excluded from the TIR guarantee hanging over their heads. This is one example of when the clear position of the IRU management and specifically the efforts of Mr. Marma, prevented us, Russian businessmen from stopping our activities and the disintegration of the TIR system entirely.

We can all guess why precisely there are more infringements of the TIR system in Russia than in other countries for hauliers both in European and Russian states. But we also know that the situation is improving as a result of efforts may by the IRU and ASMAP (Association of International Road Hauliers).

We must keep teaching state organisations to defend our interests and then we can start out at the standard of our western colleagues in the union.

If you talk about Russian hauliers and about their problems, then you may note that on the whole we are moving forward to success but there are still problems and worries in front of us. Here is one indicator: if an EU international haulier does less than fifty thousand kilometres a month - he would be bankrupt. But a Russian haulier does about 8 thousand kilometres loaded mileage per month - i.e. on average, half of the Western Europeans. But the reason is not that we can't work. The main thing is that our compatriots - state organisations, do not completely understand that their success and payment for work depends basically on the success of our business.
International road hauliers, I am sure - are a special category of people and organisations which play a part in the integration of independent states like no other.
We, Russians and Europeans, live in one continent and God has preordained that we should develop and expand integration of advanced EU states and states with less successful economies, with the help of road hauliers.

I understand that there are enough problems for hauliers in EU countries and Russia. But I know that governments will solve these problems in democratic European states bearing in mind public opinion and the opinions of public organisations.

Russian hauliers are certain that in the near future in our country the opinions of public organisations such as ASMAP, which form part of our IRU alliance, will be critical.

I hope that the future of our union with the expansion of the EU and even the entry of Russia into the WTO, will be a powerful world organisation which defends the interests of hauliers from arbitrary state rules.

In conclusion I want to thank all state representatives for giving our drivers the opportunity to work on roads of excellent quality and for the patience and help of people living in EU countries.

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