On 9 July 2025, the story of the Danish haulage company Contrans formally came to an end. The final chapter was sealed by a bankruptcy ruling issued by the Kolding District Court, bringing closure to a crisis that had begun in January 2022, when the newspaper Fagbladet 3F, published by the Danish trade union of the same name, revealed that Filipino and Eastern European drivers had been forced to live for years in the cabs of their trucks in poor conditions. At the time, Contrans was one of Denmark’s leading container hauliers, operating 240 heavy goods vehicles in Denmark and northern Germany.
According to the Fagbladet 3F investigation, Contrans compelled drivers to reside long-term in their truck cabins in poor conditions, paying them between 15 and 25 Danish kroner per hour (equivalent to €2 to €3.3) for transporting goods within Denmark—wages far below national legal standards. Following these revelations, a retired driver who had worked for the company filed a report with the police in February 2022. In September that year, the police raided the company’s headquarters in Kolding.
The operation led to substantial fines in 2023. Contrans was penalised 1.2 million Danish kroner (€160,833) for cabotage violations and for allowing around fifty drivers to take their regular weekly rest periods in their vehicles. The affiliated Polish company Henrik Hansen. Warszawa, also owned by Henrik Holger Hansen—the same individual behind Contrans—was fined a further 750,000 kroner (€100,520).
However, it was not these fines alone that undermined the company’s stability. Contrans was likely already weakened by a combination of internal and external factors, including reputational damage among clients, economic stagnation, and the broader impact of the war in Ukraine. In 2023, the company shifted from a profit of 14.295 million kroner (€1,903,193) in the previous year to a loss of 6.408 million kroner (€858,849). In that year’s financial statement, Contrans announced plans to gradually wind down its transport operations.
On 7 July 2025, a bankruptcy petition was submitted to the Kolding court, and two days later the judge issued the official decree. The ruling covered not only Contrans but also its subsidiaries, Contrans Driftsmateriel and Contrans Ejendomme. Just days before, Henrik Holger Hansen had stepped down as chairman of the board. The 3F union promptly began assessing outstanding claims for wages, pensions and unused holiday pay for affected employees, in preparation for applications to the Lønmodtagernes Garantifond, the Danish Employees’ Guarantee Fund. At the time of its collapse, Contrans employed 119 staff members, who, according to the union, are owed up to six months’ back pay.
