French parcels firms lobby for fair play
Four major French parcel delivery operators, Gefco, Heppner, Mory and Dachser-owned Graveleau, have set up a lobby group to combat what they consider to be unfair competition in the sector.
Halte – Honorable Association de Transporteurs et Logisticens Europeens) – is headed by former Gefco senior executive Claude Leroi and focuses on public sector firms operating in the private domain, which receive unofficial state aid or subsidies in the event of financial difficulties.
Halte intends to collaborate with its German counterpart, Wettbewerbsverein, in drawing up a policy document.
Wettbewerbsverein was set up some years go by German operators, including founder members of the DPD parcels network, now controlled by the French post office-owned GeoPost.
Its role is to co-ordinate action on behalf of 60 or so German small and mediumsized firms and it has lodged a complaint with the EC against Deutsche Bahn company Bahntrans.
The unfair competition/state subsidy issue in France has centred largely on complaints against SNCF’s heavy lossmaking parcel delivery arm, Sernam, already the subject of an EU enquiry.
In the express distribution arena, French operator grouping Ufex is fighting a lengthy legal battle against Chronopost, also owned by La Poste, which it accuses of receiving aid in the form of access to its parent company’s network of 14,000 post office outlets.
Separately, earlier this month, Dutch postal utility, TPG, complained to the EC about the French authorities’ legal actions related to the hiring of outside contractors by its express delivery unit, TNT Jet Services, which it claims circumvents employment legislation.
