Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/955503
maltatoday SUNDAY 18 MARCH 2018 News 3 'Sicilian truckers allowed in with no control' CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 Maltese hauliers are feeling the heat as the number of Sicilian haulage providers and even com- panies offering direct freight ser- vice to Malta is on the increase. A number of Maltese self-em- ployed, licensed hauliers travel fre- quently to Sicily to pick up and de- liver back to Malta furniture items, heavy equipment, large packages and any other freight they are con- tracted for. Most make multiple trips a week, using the daily cata- maran service between the two islands. But they are now facing fierce competition from Sicilian hauliers who are also offering the same ser- vice. Moreover, many companies and large stores in Sicily are now also offering freight transport ser- vices to Malta themselves. Bastjan Attard, 38, told MaltaTo- day he goes up to Sicily two or three times a week. On very rare occa- sions, he makes the trip on behalf of only one client, usually to bring over a consignment of furniture. Like numerous other hauliers, Attard is self-employed and owns only one truck. The vast majority of his customers are individuals or couples who go up to Sicily to save money on their purchases. "Many young couples are buy- ing their home furniture from Sic- ily, because it is apparently quite cheaper than buying locally," he said. "Most of them make a trip to Sicily by themselves to order the furniture and then they arrange for me to collect the items once ready for delivery." Attard says he charges a few hun- dred Euros – "definitely less than €1,000" – for a full truckload. That includes all his costs like the ferry ticket, diesel and wages for a helper. His profits are minimal, he says, when one considers he would spend a day in Sicily, loading the furniture and delivering it to his cli- ents in Malta. But he insists he cannot afford to raise prices, or he would soon find himself out of business. "There are many others like me who offer the same service and we often meet when travelling," he said. "But now we are seeing in- creasing number of Sicilians doing the same thing too." Attard said he suspects that many large companies and stores in Sicily are starting to insist on having Sicil- ian companies and drivers making the deliveries, even to Malta. Another haulier, William Galea, agreed. "I know we can't stop the compe- tition and that these Sicilians too have a right to come to Malta with their freight, but it seems as though we are being summarily cut out of the equation," he told MaltaToday. Galea said that for the past few years, he had frequent and regular contracts to collect items from a number of well-known superstores in Sicily and mainland Italy, includ- ing Ikea, Mondo Convenienza, Maisons du Monde and Bricoman. But he complained that the num- ber of Sicilian trucks delivering goods to Malta was on the increase, or at least their frequency was. "I know for a fact that one of the companies is telling Maltese clients that they provide their own delivery service to Malta and that they will not accept to load the items onto Maltese drivers' trucks," he said. Another Maltese truck owner, who preferred not to be named, said that he frequently went to Sicily to deliver perishable goods to Sicilian-owned restaurants and businesses in Malta. He said that one restaurant owner had told him that he had been ap- proached by a haulage company in Sicily and offered much better terms for the delivery of goods to Malta. "When he told me the prices, I knew I could not match them and I don't understand how they are able to sustain them," the man said. It seems that it is not only self- employed hauliers who are starting to feel the heat from Sicilian com- petition. A large Maltese wholesaler of printing and office equipment said that he had to drop the Mal- tese haulage company that he had worked with for the past seven years, in favour of independent Si- cilian and Italian hauliers who were much cheaper and still delivered the freight on time. "This is a no-brainer, and much as I would like to have continued sup- porting Maltese companies, it does not make business sense to pick the more expensive option, with all other things being equal." A spokesman for the Malta Chamber of Commerce told Mal- taToday that the Chamber finds no issue whatsoever with competi- tion as long as this is free and fair, with companies operating within their full legal obligations, offering competitive services to traders and customers alike. "The Malta Chamber advocates a level playing field amongst opera- tors of all fields, irrespective of their nationality or origin," he said. On a related note, the Malta Chamber has been vociferous in the past on the issue of free movement of goods as it has always deemed it unacceptable to allow abuse of the free market, allowing inconsisten- cies in procedures adopted at dif- ferent points of the Grand Harbour. "Different procedures applied on different quays are allowing certain cargo into Malta without the neces- sary controls or audit trail certifica- tion," the spokesman said. "Such lack of control hampers the duty of the competent authorities to carry out the necessary follow-ups and ascertain that cargo adheres to local and European laws and standards." pcocks@mediatoday.com.mt PAUL COCKS A 41-year-old man from St Ju- lian's, Omar Caruana, has been named in a list of suspects issued by the Catania prosecutor's office in an anti-mafia probe into drug smuggling and cattle rustling. Earlier this week, the anti-mafia unit within the Catania prosecu- tor's office, backed by carabinieri from the Ragusa regional com- mand, arrested 19 men and wom- en in an operation codenamed 'Proelio'. A further 38 persons, in- cluding Caruana, were named in a public list as being investigated, but have not been detained. Caruana's name and that of those being investigated were published online by Sicilian news- papers reporting on Operation Proelio. The Sicilian prosecutors behind Operation Proelio claim that, for the past few years, the group had been buying cocaine in Calabria to deal back in Sicily, in the prov- inces of Ragusa and Agrigento. The investigation has also un- covered ties between the Cosa Nostra Vittoriese in Calabria and the Fragapane clan in Agrigento. The head of the Fragapane clan, Salvatore, who is also the Cosa Nostra's representative in Ag- rigento, was already in prison having been sentenced to life im- prisonment for the kidnapping and murder of the young son of a police informer. Fragapane's son, Francesco was arrested in this week's raids. Investigators discovered that the Cosa Nostra Vittoriese was also extensively involved in cattle rustling, the theft and smuggling of cattle, sometimes even whole herds of cattle. In October 2010, together with another man, Caruana was sen- tenced to two years imprison- ment, suspended for four years, after being found guilty of de- frauding a number of persons by issuing over €4,600 worth of sto- len cheques. Caruana and the other man, who had used a stolen chequebook in a shopping spree that included exotic birds, jewellery, perfume, mobile phones and alcohol, had been ordered to pay the money back. MaltaToday was unable to make contact with Caruana by the time we went to print. St Julian's man amongst suspects in Sicily anti-mafia probe