The economic downturn has affected the Dutch transport sector so severely that hundreds of jobs are at stake and the sector is lobbying for government support, the Telegraaf reports on Thursday.

‘The situation is worse than ever. We could hit rock bottom with mass redundancies and numerous bankruptcies this year,’ Alexander Sakkers, chairman of transport sector lobby group TLN, told the paper.
TLN wants the government to reduce the cost of non-working lorries and to make the shorter working hours scheme more flexible. Seventeen transport firms have already applied to lay off staff under the shorter working hours scheme.