Disclaimer. The English translations provided herein are generated by artificial intelligence from Dutch and French content. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy, we cannot guarantee that the translations will be error-free. The translated content is for readability purposes only and should not be considered as legal advice. For accurate information, employers and HR professionals are advised to consult the original versions in Dutch or French, or to consult your Securex Legal Advisor.
How is the minimum fee calculated?
The 'parcels act' of late last year provided for a lot of new obligations for postal parcel companies. One of the most far-reaching measures is undoubtedly the establishment of a minimum fee to be paid to independent postal parcel delivery companies.
How this remuneration is to be calculated is now further clarified.
How is the minimum fee calculated?
Postal parcel companies must take into account the following elements, which are set out in the law and the new royal decree, when calculating the minimum fee:
- The indexed minimum wage (without seniority premium) for employee class R1 of driving personnel (PC 140.03 for third-party road transport). Since 1 January 2024, this has been €14.1035 per hour. This must still be increased by the employer's charges
- The transport costs according to the means of transport used (bicycle or motorised vehicle)
- Other costs such as administrative and tax costs and costs for insurance
- The number of km driven
- The number of performed hours
What is meant by transport costs?
The Royal Decree mainly details transport costs.
The term transport by bicycle means the use of a means of transport for which either no driving licence or a driving licence of category AM, A, A1 or A2 is required. For motorised transport, at least a B driving licence is required.
For transport by bicycle, depreciation, maintenance, insurance, overheads as well as an energy cost (for electric bicycles) are charged.
For transport by motorised vehicle, the following costs are taken into account: depreciation, maintenance, insurance, tyres, inspection costs, road tax, fuel and general costs.
Both for bicycles and motorised transport, these cost items are linked to the flattened health index of November 2023. The exceptions are energy cost (bicycle) and fuel cost (motorised vehicle). Those will both be linked to the average index of consumer prices of electricity (bicycle) and diesel (motorised vehicle) of the six months preceding the month of publication of the decision.
The indexation is done on 1 January each time for those costs calculated on the basis of the smoothed health index of November of the previous year. The energy cost and fuel cost is indexed twice a year on January 1 and July 1.
Which minimum allowance?
How much the minimum compensation will actually be will be determined later through a ministerial decree. This will be done after the numerical value of each element and the precise calculation formula have been worked out by the services of the FPS Economy.
What is the role of the coordinator at the postal parcel company?
Every postal parcel company and subcontractor delivering postal parcels must appoint a coordinator. The government has now fleshed out the job requirements, the range of duties and how it must carry out its mission. It also defines the content of the vigilance plan.
Functional requirements
The coordinator must be employed in the postal sector for at least one year and can be either an internal employee or an external self-employed. For example, transport managers or prevention advisers are also eligible.
The coordinator may work full-time or part-time but must have sufficient time to carry out their duties effectively.
Duties
The postal parcel company coordinator must:
- Inform the parcel deliverers clearly and in writing of their rights and obligations
- at the start of the assignment and annually thereafter or at their request
- Draft a vigilance plan containing the following information:
- A description of the chain of subsidiaries, subcontractors and suppliers
- A risk analysis of possible risks’s of violations of the pack law or of labour and social security law. The coordinator should also provide measures to remedy this if necessary
The vigilance plan must be drawn up by 13 November 2024 at the latest. It will be reviewed annually.
Implementation
The criteria to determine the minimum compensation are to be applied early from 1 July 2024, instead of the initially envisaged deadline of 1 October 2024. The coordinator should be appointed from 13 May 2024.
What does Securex do for you?
If you have any questions about these new rules, do not hesitate to contact your Legal Advisor at myHR@securex.be.
Securex can also assist you as a postal parcel company with the concrete implementation of this legislation.
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