Shades of gray: big business threatened to leave legal trucking industry
Approximately 30% of trucking companies have reported bankruptcy risks as early as next year. Many Russian companies in this field will end 2024 with losses, the AvtoGruzEx association said. The business is already preparing an appeal to the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The reason, according to the industry, is the growth of costs due to the Central Bank rate and falling demand, which provoked a 12% reduction in tariffs. The business is sure that changes in legislation - for example, revision of the VAT rate - can help in this situation. The Izvestia article tells how to avoid trucking going into the gray zone.
Why trucking companies record losses
In practice, the profitability of large trucking companies will be "minus 17%", told "Izvestia" member of the association "AvtoGruzEx", president of "Iteco" Evgeny Babaev. We are talking about an operating loss, he explained. "If 100 rubles are invested in a voyage, and at the finish line the company earned 83 rubles, we can just talk about negative profitability of 17%," he gave an example.
The expert added that the business told about the situation at a meeting with the first deputy head of the Ministry of Transport Valentin Ivanov in late November. Large companies will soon send a description of the general situation and their proposals to the Ministry of Transportation, as well as to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, said AvtoGruzEx.
Evgeny Babaev believes that companies are in this situation for several reasons at once: it is the growth of costs by 11% due to the constantly rising key rate, the weakening of the ruble and the increase in credit and leasing payments. In addition, the situation is developing against the background of falling demand for transportation and, as a consequence, a 12% reduction in tariffs. Under such conditions , only gray firms can operate , which save on tax deductions and insurance premiums when issuing salaries.
According to the expert, in addition to tax laws, gray firms neglect labor laws. In particular, in the fight for orders they underestimate transit times, which can be fulfilled only with violation of the labor and rest regime. For example, so-called express flights are widespread, where two drivers take turns driving a car for 12 hours each. As a result, the truck travels without stopping. For such schemes, large businesses often transfer employees to the status of self-employed, said the industry representative.
- Conscientious businesses cannot compete with companies that use such schemes. Enterprises will be forced to reduce their market share or go into the shadows, - explained Evgeny Babaev. - Therefore, some players in 2025 are preparing for this as the only way to survive.
Negative profitability with a high degree of probability may lead to bankruptcy of a number of bona fide carriers, Alexander Yurishchev, the operating director of ILC, told Izvestia.
Large business determines the gray segment of the road transportation market in 65-70%, the official activity on cargo transportation is about 30-35% of the industry players, said in a joint study of "AvtoGruzEx", Association of bona fide taxpayers "RADO", PEC, DIZI Group and Dentro.
- Carriers are incurring losses for every load transported. This not only threatens their financial stability, but also undermines their ability to invest in fleet renewal, personnel training and service improvement," added Mikhail Koptev, commercial director of Skif-Kargo transportation company.
It so happens that in compliance with the legislation (tax, transport, labor) the current tariffs of carriers do not cover the costs, added Evgeny Babaev. It is not excluded that conscientious carriers will have to sell their cars to cover losses or stop complying with the legislation along with their gray colleagues.
Vadim Filatov, president of the association of carriers "AvtoGruzEx", agrees with his colleagues: "The growth of the cost of freight transportation with the reduction of tariffs forces companies to limit development, which in the future will lead to the departure of most bona fide players from the market".
Market participants intend to ask the authorities to make comprehensive amendments to the industry regulation system, emphasized Vadim Filatov. The purpose of the changes is to eliminate unfair competition and return everyone to the same conditions. In practice, this can be accomplished by amending the law "Statutes of Road Transport and Urban Land Electric Transport" to specify that only a company with a driver on staff and a vehicle in its possession can act as a carrier. The industry believes that it is also required to reduce VAT to 10% for freight forwarding services, which will eliminate the economic sense of "optimization" of VAT by illegal firms. In addition, the business asks to speed up the creation of an electronic register of bona fide carriers.
"Izvestia" sent requests to the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Finance.
How carriers become gray
Market participants note that there is a large share of companies in the market that are engaged in business splitting to optimize tax and insurance contributions.
- The results of the research conducted in November show that by now more than 50% of transport and logistics companies are practicing gray wages," Oleg Pavlov, head of the Public Consumer Initiative (PCI), told Izvestia. - By understating official wages and issuing real wages "in envelopes", employers reduce insurance contributions and thus deprive employees of guarantees.
Along with insurance premiums, the amount of personal income tax is artificially reduced, according to the OPI study. Labor legislation is also being violated. Because of gray registration drivers are forced to overwork and restrict labor rights, and violation of the work and rest regime leads to accidents, the expert notes.
- To avoid VAT, companies often use the so-called fuel scheme, when part of the payment to subcontractors under the simplified taxation system or patent is made not in money, but in fuel, - says Vadim Filatov. - This transaction is not reflected in the documents, and the hiring company declares that the fuel it spent independently, at the expense of which it receives a VAT deduction and reduces the amount of payment for the services of subcontractors.
Another popular model is the registration of "paper" VAT, when a company ostensibly pays for services/goods of "counterparties", but in practice does not acquire anything. This allows unscrupulous players to artificially increase their expenses and thus reduce the amount of VAT and profit tax, says a market participant.
- Businesses that use these schemes cast a shadow on the entire experiment on the self-employed," Igor Zhmakin, head of the Association of Self-Employed People of Russia (OSR), told Izvestia.
Only cardinal measures will help, the expert believes. For example, banning the self-employed from working directly with legal entities - only through digital platforms where the Federal Tax Service can track their activities.
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