A number of Saudi drivers of goods transport trucks have called upon the Traffic Department and Labor Office to intervene and bar expatriates from competing with them in this field. They pointed out that some government offices deal with such expatriates to transport goods from their warehouses. Shelaiweeh Al-Abdul Aziz, Raja Al-Ayid, Saad Al-Muhammad, Saud Abdullah, Mahel Al-Rehail and Saleem Al-Muhammad denied allegations that they overcharge for their services. “These are merely rumors and are untrue,” they said. Several of these truck drivers called upon the owners of trucks driven by expatriates to deal with them instead of handing over their trucks to expatriate workers, who in most cases are illegal workers, they said. They appealed to the authorities concerned with Saudization to Saudize the medium-size truck sector on par with tankers trucks and car carriers. Abdullah Al-Fayiz, Director of the Labor Office in Hail said, “The Labor Office has no right to prevent a worker who has a permit to engage in the profession under a (Saudi) employer because this does not violate the labor regulations. There are people who have been working for 20 years now.” Any matter that violates the regulations will be dealt with according to the law, he said. Monitoring the movement of workers on the move, he said, is different from monitoring those with a fixed place of work. “For example, the monitoring of Saudization in the gold and vegetable markets is easy, but monitoring and ensuring the Saudization of vehicles on the move requires a collective effort of several authorities,” he said. The doors of the Labor Offices, he said, are open for the sons of this nation if they notice any violations. In such cases, the Saudization Committee and Inspection Department are ready to seize the violators and impose pertinent penalties on them. Col. Abdul Rahman Al-Shanbari, Director of Hail Traffic Department, said a number of vehicles driven by violators have been impounded. He pointed out that nobody has the right to stop any expatriate who holds a permit from the Ministry of Transport under the name of his sponsor, as his official documents are legal.
