please can any irish driver tell me, if irish firms wil employ a englishman living in spain.I have been on jobcentreplus.com and there seems to agreat deal of irish companies looking for drivers with experience 
I was in the same situation last year looking for work, saw all the adverts on teh jobcentre site. So I contacted about 6 Irish firms, none would take me on. Apparently (this is what some Irish lads told me later in Como truckstop one evening) they have to advertise officially via agencies like the Jobcentre, but what the firms really want is to be able to go to the govt and say ’ we couldnt’ get enough drivers so we want to contract lads from other countries’. I believe there are some Irish firms that have Poles, Lithuanians etec…Same is happening in UK. David Croome, for example, in Sheppey, is now 95% Lithuanian. It’s only a matter of time before native English drivers are rare beasts.
Good article in yesterday’s Guardian by Polly Toynbee about how the Bliar government is deliberately allowing immigrants to undercut the price of labour in the UK. That’s why from January next year UK transport firms will be allowed to hire anyone they like from any European country.
You can already hire anybody from any EU member state, but with enlargement many of the former East European states will join and therefore there is concern that companies will Hire workers from them to undercut wages.
The EU has agreed to let existing EU states maintain immigration controls until 2009 to stop a potential flood of East European workers upsetting the economies of both existing states and the new states. It seems most countries are going to use this option with two exceptions, the UK and Ireland.
As has been said the Haulage Companies are saying there is a shortage of HGV Drivers, but the truth is there is a shortage of HGV Driver willing to work long hours for low pay. But the companies can see a way of cutting costs by bringing in East Europeans and paying them low money. This has already happened in the case of Portuguese workers, they are brought into to work in the packing stations, they work long hours and can end-up living in appalling conditions. They don’t complain because they believe they are here illegally. The very least we must make sure is that these driver receive the benefits, pay and conditions required by the laws in the UK and they know they are allowed to work legally so if the employer treats them unfairly they can complain or move.
It’s all very well saying “we must make sure” drivers share the same conditions as native UK drivers, but how are you going to do that? If the firm you work for starts hiring Bulgarians and Ukrainians then what are you going to do? They won’t speak English, for a start, and their only concern will be to earn as much as they can. You work for 450 quid a week, for example, then they’ll do the same job for 150, and that’s 125 more than they would get back home. I’d do the same in their situation, to be honest. Imagine if it was possible to go over to the US and earn 1000 quid a week. What would you do?
At trade fairs and investment group meetings and so on, the government advertises Britain as being a low-cost country. Inside the EU, but with lower costs i.e less security for employees, longer legal working hours, lower corporate tax and all the rest of it. The government is not going to lift a finger to help UK drivers priced out of a job by an immigrant from Eastern Europe. The Dutch government tried to control the number of Eastern European drivers, so the companies simply re-registered them in Moldavia and points east, like Willi Betz, and the Germans only clamped down on him because he’d not been running the business correctly, as I understand it, not because he was illegally employing cut-price Ostblok drivers. (But you hear so much old cobblers in truckstops.)
We’re doomed as a group of workers, like fishermen, miners, farmworkers, steelworkers etc…
Interesting topic this, Alf… and one that couldn’t be better timed! I have just home from Ireland … literally.
I saw all those jobs advertised on the jobgov website. I phoned a couple and faxed them my details. Sat here Monday afternoon and thought ‘Why not?’ … so I went online, booked a ferry ticket thro Irish Ferries and went over there!!! OK, it is only 230 miles from here to Pembroke but I made the effort. Caught the ferry home this morning and I believe I have a job starting Monday in a brand spanking new Scania 164 480 
and the money is decent though as we all know I shall work like a dog for it.
OK, I will have to work 3 weeks on and then 5 or so days off but if I want to do Europe then I can cope with that. Wifey checked everything out and found Ryanair fly from Dublin to my local airfield!! for €8.99 if I book early enough!! which is possible cos I will be doing a regular run and more or less know when I will be hitting Dublin.
Will let you know how it goes
Good luck with that Bear, sounds like it is what you want so hope it goes well.
PeteLeTroquaire:
It’s all very well saying “we must make sure” drivers share the same conditions as native UK drivers, but how are you going to do that? …
I know what you are saying and understand why a driver will come over here to work. They want to support their families the same as us.
It’s the same reason as the Portuguese who come over here. The thing is some employers get away with explotation because they tell their workers they are here illegally.
Before we all drown our sorrows in our Beers and goto Beachy Head. There can only be a finite number of drivers willing and able to to European work and maybe if the economies improve many of these driver will want more than to be stuck in a wagon away from thier family for weeks on end. As driver head west to to improve their earnings then the Eastern Block will have to put wages and therefore rates up to keep drivers. This might level things out slightly, although none of us are going to make it rich doing the job.
I think in fact there is an infinite number of drivers willing to work for less than a native Brit. Recently I was at the truck racing here in North-East Brasil where I live and all the drivers were asking me if they could go and work in Europe, what it was like, how much they’d earn and so on. Last year I was down in Argentina travelling and the lads there asked me roughly the same questions. I reckon there is an infinite supply of drivers willing to come to Europe and work for less than the current wage. It’s only a matter of time before an agency works out how to bring them in legally. As it is, there are already lots of non-EU citizens driving without visas. It’s inevitable given the difference in cost of living between the developing world and Europe. The cost savings for transport industry owners make the search for cheap labour inevitable. I work 12 or 15 weeks in Europe, that’s enough for 8 or 9 months living comfortably in Brasil the rest of the year. Argentina is even cheaper. I know a Dutch lad does the same as me, except he lives on the beach in Thailand during his 9 months off. So think of the attractiveness of going to Europe for an ambitious hard-working trucker from a poorer part of the world. (And they’re just the same as us, after all. Same trucks, same (zb)planners, same hassles…)
language editmrs mix
I moved to Ireland a year and a half ago and found work immediately with a company that just do the continent. There is DEFINATELY a anti-english feeling here. There is NO doubt whatsoever about that especially with my Irish colleagues. I get away with it, because I’m an asian Brit so I get away with giving as good as i get. As far as I can tell, Ireland Import everything so the haulage game is doing quite well. There are a lot of big American pharmacutical(?) firms here and a lot of foriegn companies are based here as well so exports are quite healthy aswell. There is certainly always work here for Continental drivers - if you’re prepared for a hard graft. the only problem is this anti-english rubbish. I don’t think Carna employ this attitude anymore, but to get a job with them a while ago depended on whether you were catholic or protestant!!! It’s a strange game here and like eveywhere and everything else in life, if you’re face fits…
Alf Wrote:
please can any irish driver tell me, if irish firms wil employ a englishman living in spain.I have been on jobcentreplus.com and there seems to agreat deal of irish companies looking for drivers with experience
Why work for the IRISH when the SPANISH pay more?
Where are you in Spain?forget that q, just seen from your location …doh
Transporte CAudette employ
Jcarrion Employ
Jose Carillo CAdiz employ
any more?
The agencys dont have to find a way to bring the east europeans in! The government have done it for them. I cant imagine a Pole or an Estonian coming here to drive for tesco, If they drive in the uk they will have to live in the uk, a tin of beans costs the same for them as it does me, They will need to earn a living wage the same as you and me, There won’t be enough money to send home to the nearest and dearest.
Common Market, Common Problem.
The overland transport is already being done by firms from the Orient.
The same thing has happened here for years, Catholics worked for smaller firms while the Protestands drove for the bigger ones, Dukes and montgomery being the main ones. When I did my GCSEs, as soon as I finished them I was out in the truck with the uncle for Carna. This was during the Drumcree disturbances in Portadown and while at a truckstop somewhere in the south of france, near Toulon if my memory serves me right, another carna driver made a very sectarian remark, which resulted in heavey brawling in the parking area, no Ill re-phrase that, he got his malt knocked in! Ive heard the same being done to catholics working for companies who havent even opened their mouths!
Moral of story is simple, get the head down, get the job done, and last of all have a laugh! And to be honest mate, driving on the continent for any firm, you shouldnt get any hassle!
Hope everything goes well, and you could maybe ring the likes of Anduff International, Polar etc from around the border region!
Kev
I think the point people are missing when they talk about east europeans coming over here to work and having the same cost of living is this,Many of them will LIVE in the truck therefore only having their food to find.After that they will send home some money that doesn’t seem like a lot to us but for their families back home with their cost of living it will make a big difference to them.As an example look at the Ghurkas in the British Army,when the recruiting seargant comes around he isn’t short of volunteeers
kennymanning:
There is DEFINATELY a anti-english feeling here. There is NO doubt whatsoever about that especially with my Irish colleagues. I get away with it, because I’m an asian Brit so I get away with giving as good as i get. …
I used to go and work in Ireland and never experienced any problems with me being English. In fact going to Ireland was my favourite part of the job because of the attitude of the people I met. The only thing that annoyed me was the attitude to the Irish from my English work colleagues and if they experienced Anti Englishness then they deserved it. However they used to think that anybody that wasn’t a white Londoner was a yokel, ignorant northerner, thick paddy or any other regional or racial stereotype you can think of. It was one of the reasons I left the company.
tartanraider:
I think the point people are missing when they talk about east europeans coming over here to work and having the same cost of living is this,Many of them will LIVE in the truck therefore only having their food to find.After that they will send home some money that doesn’t seem like a lot to us but for their families back home with their cost of living it will make a big difference to them.As an example look at the Ghurkas in the British Army,when the recruiting sargeant comes around he isn’t short of volunteeers
If they are going to work for Supermarket chains they are not going to be able to sleep in the trucks as they are used 24/7. The hauliers that wil want them will be the continental hauliers who can double man a truck at the same cost a single manned truck and maybe weekend them back home.
muckles:
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I used to go and work in Ireland and never experienced any problems with me being English. In fact going to Ireland was my favourite part of the job because of the attitude of the people I met. .
I’ll second that Muckles. I used to love driving in Ireland, North and South, The friendliness and helpfulness of the people is equalled only by the Arabs.
- A driver pulling up in his truck in Belfast because he saw me looking at the street map.
- The night guard at a Donegal factory making me a meal in the firm’s canteen when I arrived too late to tip.
- Ditto at a factory in Galway but this time the chef/waiter was the finance director working late.
- The traffic warden on Parnell St. in Dublin telling me to drop my drawbar on the double yellows there whilst I tipped from the wagon in a very small side street with market stalls saying ‘sure you’ve got your job to do’
- The hilarious day-long saga of not having a permit at the Newry-Dundalk border finally resolved by letting me through with a ‘don’t come back without one next time’.
I could go on. Won’t hear a word said against the Irish. (Except the one who tried to blow me up in Banbridge - Nothing personal , of course 
)
Salut, David.
LOL Bondi, just a little (or a lot even) off topic, Ive just put an offer in on a house in Banbridge!!
Useless info I know but a little excited about it!!
regards
Kev
scania king kev:
Ive just put an offer in on a house in Banbridge!!Useless info I know but a little excited about it!!
Hi Kev,
It wouldn’t be that one just on the right as you go down the main street where the black hole used to be, would it? 
Salut, David.
i stand by what I said in that there is an anti English feeling in Ireland.
It’s one thing coming here, tipping, loading and going back home to GB, but if you live here, as I do, you would experience this anti english rubbish.
Yes, the Irish are VERY friendly. It is in their nature to be extremely nice and most will bend over backwards to help you, but scratch beneath the surface and you will find that some of the folk here just don’t like Brits. It’s as simple as that. I don’t know why and I don’t particularly care. That’s just the way it is. Sorry to destroy the illusion. Kenny
Alf…
…don’t know if I’m a bit late regarding your question, but have you tried www.jobcentreonline.com - never much in the NI web but has a links page which might be helpful.
Good Luck !