Just spotted one in Bristol, it’s a new thing or what?
No, in fact there used to be far more of them than there are now. I believe they were (theoretically at least) based at Lokeren.
Ok thought it might have been their reaction to brexit 
a few stobarts on chech plates too.
in 2000 they based a lot of trucks in belgium,i drove some back then when they were in the uk.all rhd…some scam back then to get round some rule i think.
They have car transporters and tautliners on Czech plates.
I’ve seen some of their trucks in the Amazon depot at Amiens, but whether they work for Amazon or were tipping there, dunno.
Didn’t Stobarts try and have a go at the continental nut only to be “warned off” by the likes of Norbert et al?
Stobarts used to have a depot @ Lokeren … near the Truckstop / Tankwash. At one point they were doing some / all of the NAFFI contract for British Forces. They had quite a few trucks on Belgian plates … think they had some on walking floors. I can’t remember when and why they pulled out of Lokeren … think it was a few yrs ago.
toonsy:
Didn’t Stobarts try and have a go at the continental nut only to be “warned off” by the likes of Norbert et al?
A few years back I saw UK reg Stobart units doing trailer swops, with EU reg units, at Reims on several occasions. More recently Ive only seen CZ reg (Stobbart) units on the road. Could well be that UK ones still go over, but Ive not seen em, I rarely go Calais way, so there could be fleets of them I miss. (I wont loose sleep at not bagging one for my spotter`s book!). They do have a presence in EU, but not a hugely apparent one.
The Rustler:
Stobarts used to have a depot @ Lokeren … near the Truckstop / Tankwash. At one point they were doing some / all of the NAFFI contract for British Forces. They had quite a few trucks on Belgian plates … think they had some on walking floors. I can’t remember when and why they pulled out of Lokeren … think it was a few yrs ago.
Tyres out of Luxembourg as well iirc.
Good friend of mine used to run into/out of Lokeren. Had a rhd FH on low profile tyres before he switched to a lhd.
Ken.
The first Belgian (& Dutch) reg trucks started to appear in late '97.
Lokeren depot also had Belgian drivers in the beginning.
Office staff was a mixture of Belgian & British planners.
Stobart still has a Depot in Belgium, it’s in Genk.
As said its no new thing, tbf some of there belgian fleet is pretty smart.
They also have stobarts on CZ plates and RO plates.
Half of there williams F1 fleet are on CZ units.
Does Stobart still work in Ireland?..
trashman2013:
Does Stobart still work in Ireland?..
I think the big players put a stop to that.
Would think DD be along soon to give us the story…
The Rustler:
Stobarts used to have a depot @ Lokeren … near the Truckstop / Tankwash. At one point they were doing some / all of the NAFFI contract for British Forces. They had quite a few trucks on Belgian plates … think they had some on walking floors. I can’t remember when and why they pulled out of Lokeren … think it was a few yrs ago.
“NAFFI contract for British Forces” That’ll be NAAFI - years ago was done by Brit-European when they were Carmans/Marwin - the London depot used to take/collect the trailers to/from Dover and trunk them to Scholar Green
xamtex:
in 2000 they based a lot of trucks in belgium,i drove some back then when they were in the uk.all rhd…some scam back then to get round some rule i think.
IIRC, you’re correct and the practice was known as ‘flagging out’ which was something akin to the way that some ships fly a flag of convenience that comes from a country where the authorities don’t enforce the rules in quite such a strict way that the rules are enforced in the home country.
I also seem to remember that after a while, the UK Traffic Commissioners came down rather heavily on the practice of ‘flagging out’ in relation to trucks.
dieseldave:
xamtex:
in 2000 they based a lot of trucks in belgium,i drove some back then when they were in the uk.all rhd…some scam back then to get round some rule i think.IIRC, you’re correct and the practice was known as ‘flagging out’ which was something akin to the way that some ships fly a flag of convenience that comes from a country where the authorities don’t enforce the rules in quite such a strict way that the rules are enforced in the home country.
I also seem to remember that after a while, the UK Traffic Commissioners came down rather heavily on the practice of ‘flagging out’ in relation to trucks.
I wonder how it works with some companies, I hesitate to name them*, employing UK drivers from UK depots and trucks with Dutch plates?
Is it maybe one company hiring labour to another company that owns the vehicles in another country? Or what?
Domestic UK wouldn’t be easy, but if on international work they won’t have cabotage problems.
.
A thread* on the Euro section got me wondering about that.
Franglais:
dieseldave:
xamtex:
in 2000 they based a lot of trucks in belgium,i drove some back then when they were in the uk.all rhd…some scam back then to get round some rule i think.IIRC, you’re correct and the practice was known as ‘flagging out’ which was something akin to the way that some ships fly a flag of convenience that comes from a country where the authorities don’t enforce the rules in quite such a strict way that the rules are enforced in the home country.
I also seem to remember that after a while, the UK Traffic Commissioners came down rather heavily on the practice of ‘flagging out’ in relation to trucks.
I wonder how it works with some companies, I hesitate to name them*, employing UK drivers from UK depots and trucks with Dutch plates?
Is it maybe one company hiring labour to another company that owns the vehicles in another country? Or what?
Domestic UK wouldn’t be easy, but if on international work they won’t have cabotage problems.
.
A thread* on the Euro section got me wondering about that.
I’d agree that the practice seems to be continuing, so I think that some bright spark has probably come up with some inventive ways of circumventing the rules.
Wasn’t " flagging out " used simply as a way to avoid paying UK road tax .
trashman2013:
Does Stobart still work in Ireland?..
He does a bit of tanker work for Circle K petrol stations other than that he has nothing in Ireland, businesses in Ireland don’t like being told when their goods will be delivered they have a tendency to tell the haulier when it is to be delivered and it is up to the haulier to be on time. Stobart thought he was going to shake up Ireland and I would hazard a guess that that thought has cost him a fair bit of money.