The coalition agreement appears to be settled. We professional drivers get a mention too.
Drivers get a mention
Page 16 of the coalition agreement says:
We will push for higher European occupational health and safety standards for professional drivers. We want to expand toilet and washing facilities at parking and service areas on federal motorways and make them free to use. We will improve working conditions in the courier, express and parcel sector. Making contractors liable for their subcontractors’ social security contributions has proved effective. We will use these rules as a model and introduce comparable liability for parcel delivery.
So far, it’s all lip service. We’ll see what changes and, above all, whether we’ll be able to, er, spend a penny at Sanifair without paying for the privilege. I’d particularly like to know how they’d do it. Would they use the driver’s card, as Tankpool24 does? I’d have data protection concerns straight away.
Lip service
Let’s be honest. So far they’ve managed to build a few new parking areas here and there and expand existing ones where they could. The results have been modest. And now the facilities are supposed to be free for us as well? I’ll believe it when I see it.
Many of us followed the Transport Committee’s round table with Udo Schiefner. You could see them going round in circles.
Toilets and washing facilities
Making the facilities free is a drop in the ocean. Germany still has too few parking spaces, and many EU regulations and directives affecting transport and logistics have yet to be reflected in German law.
The incoming government is already being tipped to have a short life. After what they’ve come up with, they’ll be history in four years at most. And what comes after that… it doesn’t bear thinking about. The echoes of 1933 are hard to miss.
And no, I wasn’t daft enough to vote for them. Or for the blue lot, who as far as I’m concerned have nothing of substance to offer.
As the article on TruckOnline says, drivers won’t change anything either, even though we could.
We drivers work in the country’s third-largest industry. We keep the country supplied. We’re the small but vital cog that keeps logistics running. Until we exercise that power together, absolutely nothing will change.
Better working conditions
That’s what the coalition agreement promises. The minimum wage is supposed to rise to €15 by 2026. Overtime is supposed to be tax-free. We’ll see whether any of it happens.
The problem is that most professional drivers do endless overtime on a flat salary. Which brings us back to power. Together, we could win a universally binding collective agreement. We’d have to stand together to get it.
Where’s the solidarity?
I’ve written more than once on the old blog about how little solidarity there is among drivers. It’s getting worse.
The piece linked on TruckOnline puts it like this:
You lot need to do something.
The trouble is, ‘YOU’ really means all of us!
But I’m getting sidetracked.
Back to the coalition agreement.
A set of half-measures
We’ll see who ultimately benefits from the agreement.
They want to scrap Bürgergeld, Germany’s basic welfare benefit, and replace it with a form of basic income designed to make work more attractive. They also want to strengthen employment placement services. The Federal Employment Agency and particularly the job centres are supposed to offer everyone personalised advice, support and help finding work. We know how that works in practice. You can read about it at https://www.gegen-hartz.de/
And yes, I’m well aware that a few people exploit the welfare system. They make up only a small share of Bürgergeld recipients.
Pay and collective bargaining
The coalition agreement proposes a federal law on compliance with collective pay agreements. The aim is to make those agreements the norm again.
I expect another patchwork of rules. I’d welcome an industry-wide agreement with a decent hourly rate. We’ll have to wait and see what comes of this.
The overtime proposal I mentioned earlier is interesting. The agreement is supposed to define full-time work as follows:
- With a collective agreement = 34 hours
- Without a collective agreement = 40 hours
Under §21a ArbZG , we’re allowed to work up to 60 hours a week subject to certain conditions. That would leave 20 hours of overtime in a week. At the current minimum wage of €12.82 an hour, that’s €256.40. At €15 an hour, potentially from 2026, it’d be another €300 in take-home pay!
The catch is that the extra money wouldn’t count towards your pension.
Pensions
While we’re on the subject, they want to put pensions on a ‘secure footing’ for every generation. They intend to keep the pension level at 48 per cent by law until 2031. The extra spending will come out of tax revenue. Where that money is supposed to come from… we’ll see.
They also want to launch an ‘early-start pension’ on 1 January 2026. For each child between six months and 18 years old who attends an educational institution, they propose putting €10 a month into an individual, funded pension account run by the private sector. Well, that’s what they want to do.
It’s a decent idea. So far it remains a proposal.
They also want to strengthen workplace pensions!
The option to retire without a reduction after 45 years of contributions is supposed to stay. On top of that, they plan financial incentives for people who ‘voluntarily’ work longer. That might be feasible in some jobs.
For those who choose to work longer, up to €2,000 of their pay would be tax-free. Anything above that would be taxed.
I could go on about the coalition agreement. You can read it for yourself at https://www.spd.de/fileadmin/Dokumente/Koalitionsvertrag_2025.pdf
