The Greek government was determined to end the unfair competition posed by Turkish trucks to their Greek counterparts by transporting goods within Greece in violation of existing bilateral agreements, Infrastructure, Transport and Networks Minister Dimitris Reppas told Parliament on Thursday.

The minister pointed out that Turkish trucking companies fully exploited their right to have an equal number of licences as their Greek counterparts and had a competitive advantage in the form of tax-free fuel and lower labour costs.

Reppas noted that the same journey will cost a Greek customer 1,200 euros when carried out by a Turkish truck and 2,500 euros using a Greek truck. As a result, Turkish truckers had carried out 25,000 paid journeys in the past year when Greek truckers did not exceed 1,000.

The minister said that the Turkish trucks would temporarily be allowed to continue journeys within Greece, in order to avoid shortages on the market due to the ongoing dockers strike, especially for fresh produce.

In due course, however, the government would step up controls and ensure that each Turkish truck had a proper licence to carry goods in Greece, he noted.