The only Betz driver I’ve spoken to was at a coldstore in Grimsby. He and his mate were both Bulgarians and it worked out that they got about £80 per week each, give or take a couple of quid each way.
One thing I’ve often wondered is. Do Betz drivers work from any one depot and stay in an area of Europe or can they potentially be in Birmingham one week and Poti a week or so later? Or are they based in say Brussels and do Holland, Belgium and the UK and take the trailer to Brussels and transfer to another truck who then takes it further?
Think some of the Betz drivers must have had some sort of clan meeting in Wales last night. When popping into Cardiff West I noticed there must have been something around 10 Betz lorries parked up for the night. And a few more arrived while I was there. Shame I didn’t bring the camera.
In the last 6 or so months I’ve noticed a sharp decline in the amount of Betz trucks seen on the roads here, you still see a fair few but it doesn’t appear to be as many as before. At the same time I’ve noticed a massive increase of regular E.European trucks, mostly Polish followed by Czechs etc. Has anyone else noticed this?
I have noticed that as well. Quite a few of the Betz trucks I have seen have been on Dutch plates. I was in Ireland a couple of weeks ago for the first time in ages and I noticed a few E European trucks over there, you never use to see them at all.
willi betz has had an office in Felixstowe…my first encounter with them was a subby pulling one of their tilts with a F88 sometime b4 i took my test in 1987…and of course he can take the edwards haulage division in Hull
willi betz uk ltd
unit 1
gulpher business pk
felixstowe
Yes, Willi Betz use Bulgarian driver - double manning crew and thier wage about £100 - 240 per month. i have spoke many of Betz drivers in Heston MSA, they usually parking up for weekends about 12 - 30 Betz lorries parking. They have various job
some of them doing driving to Spain to UK to Spain for three months for loading onions for UK RDC.
Some of them doing driving across the any various europe country for three months.
Some of them doing regulary grouppage delivery.
Betz use lots of Bulgarian drivers. Bulgarian driver could away from home up to 4 weeks to three months.
I have seen Willi Betz have use few of Italian, French, Dutch, German and Austrian driver and plate number for long time but in recently Betz use Polish, Czech and Hungarian driver and plate number.
if you see Willi Betz Mercedes Actros with Russia or Georgia plate number but all drivers are bulgarian because Betz decide use Russia or Georgia Mercedes Dealer for cheap market to buy.
Now Willi Betz are looking for about 60 british driver to work around UK following by won the extra new contract of Toyotas for three years. Willi Betz will set new two depot in Newport Pagnell and Shenstone (Staffordshire). Keep eye on brits drivers on betz ! i have not seen yet,
If you see lots Willi Betz lorries parking in Weekend at Heston, Thurrock, Toddington, Birch, Bothwell cos they use Moto MSA for free fee but Betz office will pay not drivers.
In Felixstowe, Betz Netherland BV Office, it is office for Holland and UK operator for long time. no depot.
The largest company in the us is swift. they have about 16,000 trucks and 20,000 drivers. for starters their turnover is over 100%. with our laws and roads and average weeks work is around 2400 miles. if you run your log book to the fullest you can squeeze in about 3100 miles. and if you and you’re boss don’t care about the log book, then you can do about 5000 miles a week. this is of course for the long distance driving. I do city work and do about 900 miles a week. the problem with swift is that they are so large that they don’t seem to really care about having all there trucks run as many miles as they can so it is common for swift drivers to sit for days on end. my guess is that they average about 1500 miles a week in a truck goverened at about 65 mph. t these guys, a lot of times, make as little as 70 pounds a week which is far less than what can be made at most other jobs. at the high end a new swift driver will make around 250 pounds a week. which is enough to get by but still a bit less than what the average driver makes over here. now 200 euros a month!!! wow, i couldn’t imagine.
i used to go to brose in coventry,betz used to have 3 or 4 trailers there and one of his own trucks shunting,with one or two trucks parked out side the perimiter,but after they changed the rules on entering i think they stopped betz shunting,not been for a while,so dont know if they still shunt there own trailers…
Going back to Edwards. Edwards of Hull used to be a general haulier who did work from many companies in Hull, A major bathroom manufacturer built a new factory after the 2nd world war to replace all the porcelain the heinkels had broken.
Edwards of Hull and others worked for Ideal Standard and Stelrad in National Avenue. The other major manufacturer was Adam Ant but he took up singing
So through the germans bombing my grannys bog, they have eventually got the contract to replace them all using willy botz
The new Uk operatiion is supposed to be trunking between Burnaston and the many suppliers based in the uk. So probably will be either double shifted trucks from Shenstone, but other members of the Betz group will probably be picking the odd reloads up. There is also a chance that Willy Betz Automotive will move some of his car transprters onto this contract.
I was weekended with a couple of Betz Drivers in the Mistrals last year, they were Dutch with fridges. They said that nearly all the Dutch and French registered trucks were driven by Dutch or French drivers.
The dutch Willy Betz drivers have to wear white socks in their furry clogs and must always shop at Lidl
I dont have any problem with Willi Betz in the UK. what worries me more is the large companies like Tibbet and Britten and Christian Salvasens taking over all the major contracts from small hauliers
You’ll usually find that any Betz truck that is single manned will be from whichever country the truck is registered,ie: if it’s Dutch registered it will be a Dutch driver,Italian registered then an Italian driver.It’s normally only the Bulgarian and Georgian etc. registered trucks that are double manned.
One of our driver’s was at the Betz depot in Barcelona a few weeks ago and there was a Mercedes coach,in the same blue as the trucks and with a fleet number on the side,picking up and dropping off driver’s.
So when the Bulgarian driver’s have done their three months,if they’re not within striking distance of home,they go home by bus!
Betz also supply most of the east european drivers with an account card for the Aldi supermarket,so they can get food supplies (nothing else) and then whatever they have spent over the three months is deducted from their salary.
Explains why you never see a Bulgarian without an Aldi carrier bag!
a story in last weeks commercial motor claimed willi betz was now recruiting drivers in the derby/stoke areas to run for toyota contract they have recently aquired, formerly held by nyk logistics which i think was originally uci logistics and before that may have been atkins or perhaps i’m confused because they run from atkins old yard on the a38.
currently employing all agency drivers, 18 at shenstone and 12 at newport pagnell.
direct recruitment is being considered and the figure being looked at is a requirement to employ 60 drivers.
frank putters is branch manager at shenstone and markus herr (very english name there) is manager at newport pagnell.
