There were problems behind the major Russian operators of Finnish freight traffic – KRP is investigating

Finnish The trend of the Ukrainian war in the Ukrainian war has been the growth of transport companies that are linked to Russian and Finnish dual citizens and mainly using Russian drivers. The STT dealt with the subject in a story published last summer, and since then two major companies have been in trouble, according to STT’s report. Plc Transit Service is reported to have ended and Moroz is subject to an authority investigation.

Plc Truck Service on the PLC service side was filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, and there have been signs in the industry that the transport side company would also be following it. According to several sources in the field, Plc Transit ceased operations at the turn of the month. By mid -May, however, the transport side company had not yet made a formal bankruptcy that would be visible In the Insolvency Register.

The possible bankruptcy could be considered surprising, as the company grew strongly and made a profit recently.

In recent years, a significant share of the ports of the ports of Southern Finland has been transferred to the management of companies using Russian drivers and linked to dual citizens, ”the source of the industry estimates to STT.

PLC Transit Service CEO Ilya Patruhin refused to comment on the company’s space in any way to the STT.

Actor There is also Moroz in the industry, which is closely linked to Finzer, a personnel hiring company.

When asked about Moroz or Finzer, the Central Criminal Police (KRP) confirmed that he had launched the related investigation. However, in the event of an investigation, the police will not comment further on possible crime titles, the duration of the investigation or its content, and will not indicate more about the parties involved or their position.

In recent years, Moroz has been subject to reports from the Regional Government Office (AVI) that the company’s working time records were not correct. According to STT, AVI has taken the whole to the police.

According to STT, the company had explained conflicts in AVI’s leisure time for drivers. In the report, AVI asked the police to the port information of the vehicles used by the company’s drivers from the port, whereby Moroz’s cars were found to have been on the spot during which the company said they had been in personal driving for the drivers.

In the follow-up control of Moroz, the driver card run and loading, demolition and other work were observed for more than 40 Moroz vehicles in January-February 2024, according to the AVI inspection report in Southern Finland.

The discussions with Moroz did not determine which drivers were driving at the time. Already at the end of the previous inspection of Moroz, at the end of 2023, it was stated that the guidelines given without a driver’s card had no effect on the company’s operations.

According to Moroz, it has no information on the investigation. As the STT attempted to ask follow -up questions, the person who responded to the company’s phone number closed the call.

Many big The forwarding companies have used the services of companies with Russian backgrounds. PLC Transit On their Facebook page In the videos and pictures, DB Schenker and DHL trailers have been driven by its drivers. The STT has seen LKW Walter trailers after the Plc Transit drivers. The companies hardly want to comment.

DHL replied that there is no comment on the matters or business situations of individual transport companies.

« At a general level, however, we can say that when choosing transport companies, we take into account several criteria, such as responsibility, reliability, service quality, cost-effectiveness and environmental friendliness, » tells STT by email DHL’s Finnish communications manager by email Ilmari Tuomivaara.

DB Schenker appealed to the ongoing acquisition in his response to STT. LKW Walter did not respond to STT’s contacts.

The state company Post tells STT that Plc Transit Service and Moroz have not been its contractors.

Freja is The exception of the investigation companies investigated by the STT as it agreed to comment on the subject. Freja says she used to use Plc Transit and limited by Moroz’s services, but decided to stop using them last year.

« We started to concretize and realize the things that were against our responsibility, so we were consciously going down, » says the company’s CEO Matti Urmas.

The reason was the suspicions of companies’ links with Russian. According to Freja, the growth of companies run by dual citizens and uses Russian drivers in the industry is related to the lack of driver in recent years. According to Urmas, domestic players have stopped, which has made it difficult to get trucks.

Drivers also retired from premature retirement during the corona. At that time, due to the difficulties of logistics chains, car factories were unable to deliver new traction vehicles to meet demand. It increased the value of the equipment used in the market, whereby many people approaching retirement age should stop and sell their equipment.

« These are the backgrounds of why these companies that have been featured here have quickly gained a foothold here in the Finnish market, » says Urmas.

Has the activities of companies with Russian backgrounds seemed to be organized in the industry, or is it just about entrepreneurs who use a marketplace?

« It is said that the market has at least been favorable to them. »

According to sources in the industry, companies with Russian backgrounds have grown by offering the cheapest price to which large forwarding companies have gripped.

“Price policy is generally considered to be unfortunately in a very important role in the transport sector,” says a leading expert in Traficom’s professional transport and road transportation Mikko Västilä.

Russian Citizens’ recruitment to transport companies in Finland has continued during the offensive war in Ukraine, but according to the Immigration Service, the issue of new residence permits to Russian drivers seems to have stalled in the last year.

According to the Immigration Service’s last year’s statistics, during the Ukrainian full-time war between 2022 and 2024, among the Russian citizens who have obtained a residence permit from Finland, trucks and special vehicles have been the second largest professional group.

By August last year, 269 Russian drivers had received the first residence permit. By August, during August, 4,76 Russian drivers had received a follow -up permit.

According to the latest information from the STT Immigration Service, 30 Russians received a positive decision from the first residence permit based on work. However, there were no drivers in this group. The profession was not known.

At the same time, 19 Russian trucks and special vehicles were granted.

PLC Transit There were 120 freight licenses and 141 driver certificates in May. The company was granted the latest new driver certificates on March 25 to two Russian citizens and on March 12 to one Russian and three Ukrainian citizens.

In May, Moroz had 125 freight licenses and 87 driver certificates.

Foreign drivers employed by the companies were mainly Russian citizens.

The statistics do not directly show the extent to which companies have recruited drivers directly from Russia. However, driver certificates show that Moroz and PLC Transit have employed Russian drivers in Finland with a driver’s license from Russia. Moroz was looking for drivers on a Russian job search site at least in 2022.

« From Traficom’s point of view, there is no problem with it, because the driver’s recruitment from a third country is not in principle illegal, » says Traficom Västilä.

The employer must apply for a driver’s certificate for his driver if the employee is not a citizen of the EU or a third country citizen in the EU country for a long time.

Do you see in the industry Working as a security risk that a part of the logistics chain that has grown in Finnish society has been transferred to Russian drivers?

« This is purely my personal opinion, but yes. There is a clear risk of doing companies.

From this point of view, the Finnish security authorities commented in the subject.

“The Security Police follows phenomena and development of Finland’s national security locally and internationally. Road transport carried out by different nationalities and international companies do not as such a threat to national security, but companies in various fields (including logistics) can also be utilized for Finland in unfavorable activities, such in the statement.

According to STT information, Supo would have made inquiries in the industry about PLC’s activities, but Supo does not comment.

« Unfortunately, we cannot comment on that claim – we cannot comment on our operational activities. »

However, according to Traficom’s Västilä, the share of Russian drivers in logistics that is important to Finnish society is not so great in the current situation that it would give a cause for concern, for example, for safety reasons. However, according to Västilä, the authorities follow the situation closely.

Moroz is Has been a profitable company during the Ukrainian war, although it has recently a decline in its result. Moroz’s net sales for the financial year were still around EUR 2021, from which it jumped to more than EUR 16 million the following year and remained at the same level in 2023.

The operating profit was about three times a year to EUR 1.5 million in 2022 and continued to rise to 1.9 million in 2023.

Moroz is attached to the staff hiring company Finzer, from which the company has leased the workforce according to the labor inspection documents. Finzer’s net sales increased by half to just under EUR 4.7 million in 2022 and has remained at the same level until 2024, with net sales of EUR 4.4 million. Finzer has made a small profit or loss in recent years.

Plc Transit Service’s net sales started to grow even before the Star of the Ukraine Grand War and doubled in the year to EUR 13.4 million in 2022. In 2023, a turnover was EUR 14.2 million. As early as 2022, the company was profitable and made nearly € 500,000, but in 2023 the result fell to zero.