Gelsenkirchen entrepreneurs mobilize against driving ban

Both companies are located directly on Kurt-Schumacher-Straße and employ around 320 people in Gelsenkirchen, 220 of whom work at AMEVIDA's headquarters on Kurt-Schumacher-Straße and 100 employees and over 250,000 guests and customers per year at Schalke Sportpark. Both entrepreneurs want to draw attention to the situation. At the same time, they plan to explore all possibilities to put the driving ban to the test. AMEVIDA CEO Dr. Matthias Eickhoff, spokesman for the Executive Board, sees significant disadvantages for the location: "We only opened our headquarters on Kurt-Schumacher-Straße last year. With a driving ban right outside the door, this location would not have been an option. This is not reasonable for either our customers or our employees. Such a court decision would make the difficult recruitment of new employees in Gelsenkirchen even more difficult," says Dr. Eickhoff. "The diesel driving ban affects many of our customers. As soon as the driving ban comes into force, the affected customers will find it difficult to reach us by car," says Martin Rinke, Managing Director of Schalker Sportpark. "Without accessibility for diesel vehicles, the entire area around Kurt-Schumacher-Straße will become much less interesting for entrepreneurs with and without customer traffic. This means a considerable competitive disadvantage."