Reason for edit: double post
thetourist:
Never understood how a truck that is manufactured in one country at a fixed building cost and then sold all over Europe at a certain price with variations to allow for local taxation costs becomes so cheap that a peasant from the likes of Latvia or the Ukraine and Romania can afford to buy the latest all singing bells and whistles top modal and putt it on the road. I would have thought the basic cost alone with no tax or delivery charges would be prohibitive when you haven’t a pot to ■■■■ in. I know the big Euro company’s can afford them but even the little people are buying what they call cheap trucks.
I have no doubt whatsoever that they are getting (illegal) subsidies in order to be able to buy them.
thetourist:
neilsp252:
Is it me or do a lot of large companies, especially spanish, now seem not only to be employing eastern europeans but are now registering their trucks in BG, LT and SK. Over the past few weeks I have seen Sertrans to name one running all new marked up Mans on foreign plates dragging spanish trailers. Are these companies now setting up offices in these countries so as to pay less taxes, buy cheaper trucks and employ slave labour?
If that’s the case how long will it be before many others follow, causing eastern ■■■■■■■■■■ of the haulage business, forcing the rest in to bankruptcy, thus causing a monopoly?Never understood how a truck that is manufactured in one country at a fixed building cost and then sold all over Europe at a certain price with variations to allow for local taxation costs becomes so cheap that a peasant from the likes of Latvia or the Ukraine and Romania can afford to buy the latest all singing bells and whistles top modal and putt it on the road. I would have thought the basic cost alone with no tax or delivery charges would be prohibitive when you haven’t a pot to ■■■■ in. I know the big Euro company’s can afford them but even the little people are buying what they call cheap trucks.
Subsidies,
whistles for Happy Keith to explain!
GBPub:
I have no doubt whatsoever that they are getting (illegal) subsidies in order to be able to buy them.
I happened to visit the local volvo dealership today in regards to replacing my scania R480 with an FH16 but since they don’t offer the ocean race special edition with less than 600hp anymore I’ll have to settle with a 13-litre 500 that will cost me €92 000 but maybe I just should’ve asked for the “secret illegal subsidy”?
or quite possibly at 5´9 I’m not small enought to qualify for the “little people who buy the bells and whistles” discount 
When I was in Poland last week I did notice van + truck dealers making a big noise about 110% lease and finance deals.
thetourist:
neilsp252:
Is it me or do a lot of large companies, especially spanish, now seem not only to be employing eastern europeans but are now registering their trucks in BG, LT and SK. Over the past few weeks I have seen Sertrans to name one running all new marked up Mans on foreign plates dragging spanish trailers. Are these companies now setting up offices in these countries so as to pay less taxes, buy cheaper trucks and employ slave labour?
If that’s the case how long will it be before many others follow, causing eastern ■■■■■■■■■■ of the haulage business, forcing the rest in to bankruptcy, thus causing a monopoly?Never understood how a truck that is manufactured in one country at a fixed building cost and then sold all over Europe at a certain price with variations to allow for local taxation costs becomes so cheap that a peasant from the likes of Latvia or the Ukraine and Romania can afford to buy the latest all singing bells and whistles top modal and putt it on the road. I would have thought the basic cost alone with no tax or delivery charges would be prohibitive when you haven’t a pot to ■■■■ in. I know the big Euro company’s can afford them but even the little people are buying what they call cheap trucks.
There are no subsidies given from the goverment in Latvia to fund a lorry, and I really doubt that there are any given in Ukraine, dont know about Romania.
They don’t buy them, they are all leased. It’s not the capital cost of the vehicle that’s important anyway. This usually accounts for less than 10% of the running cost over it’s lifetime. In fact interest rates are now lower in the UK than in euroland, so if your credit rating is good enough you should be able to get a better deal in the UK than over there. It’s all the other costs, mainly of course wages that make the difference. If a UK operator could cut his weekly wage costs by about 3 or 400 quid a week we would be back in the game.
Riho:
thetourist:
neilsp252:
Is it me or do a lot of large companies, especially spanish, now seem not only to be employing eastern europeans but are now registering their trucks in BG, LT and SK. Over the past few weeks I have seen Sertrans to name one running all new marked up Mans on foreign plates dragging spanish trailers. Are these companies now setting up offices in these countries so as to pay less taxes, buy cheaper trucks and employ slave labour?
If that’s the case how long will it be before many others follow, causing eastern ■■■■■■■■■■ of the haulage business, forcing the rest in to bankruptcy, thus causing a monopoly?Never understood how a truck that is manufactured in one country at a fixed building cost and then sold all over Europe at a certain price with variations to allow for local taxation costs becomes so cheap that a peasant from the likes of Latvia or the Ukraine and Romania can afford to buy the latest all singing bells and whistles top modal and putt it on the road. I would have thought the basic cost alone with no tax or delivery charges would be prohibitive when you haven’t a pot to ■■■■ in. I know the big Euro company’s can afford them but even the little people are buying what they call cheap trucks.
There are no subsidies given from the goverment in Latvia to fund a lorry, and I really doubt that there are any given in Ukraine, dont know about Romania.
Maybe not direct subsidies, but the government are getting a large slice from the EU
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The Baltic states lead the pack, with canny Latvia having contracted 76 per cent of its potential funds by the end of 2010, and actually getting 30 per cent of the dosho into the bank. Neighbouring Lithuania is a wee bit behind, with Estonia on their heels in terms of contracted payments. (Slovenia and Czech have managed to elbow Estonia out of the way in terms of payments.)
kpmg.com/HU/en/IssuesAndInsi … 11_web.pdf
See page 28
so surprisingly we are like the rest of the countries belonging to the EU, getting grants and subsidies and all
I have read page 28. Do not jump to the conclusion that because the EEC has granted funding for transport you can just pop along and get a load of half price Scania’s. Transport covers a multitude of different activities and is more likely to be handed out to rail and bus companies than european hauliers and usually as soft loans rather than direct grants.
the vehicle manufacturers are not daft enough to sell their trucks cheaper in the former communist states they want as much money as possible, and the respective governments in the EU can’t afford to subsidise the purchase of these trucks either.
the brutal truth is that a bulgarian or romanian (other former communists states are available 
) will work for 1000 to 1200 euros a month compared to a spaniard who would expect 2500 to 3000 so the savings made in the wages pay for the bosses to buy new trucks and/or undercut the competition.
its simple economics, pay less wages make or save more money
You going to catch the game tomorrow WBIS ?. Where are you going to be ?. Hope you do the french and then get hammered by NZ.
Ex Haulier:
You going to catch the game tomorrow WBIS ?. Where are you going to be ?. Hope you do the french and then get hammered by NZ.
watched it in the routier in St Jean de Luz, gutted 
never mind at least we got to the semi final 
Never mind mate, you know how we english usually end up feeling. Yet another heroic failure !.
Just done a little job, a bit specialist, collected three machines,sent two trucks to belguim, colllected a machine , and one to germany to collect the other parts of the machine, all loads will build up to make one large machine, all the trls were euroliners, but needed chains to secure and drivers with a bit of nouse, so we got the call, anyway also to bring back was one load of small bits an peices, so my driver asks the customer if they want us to go and get that load aswell, customer says no thanks, we will sub that load out to an eastern european , as its not difficult…thanks !
neilsp252:
Is it me or do a lot of large companies, especially spanish, now seem not only to be employing eastern europeans but are now registering their trucks in BG, LT and SK. Over the past few weeks I have seen Sertrans to name one running all new marked up Mans on foreign plates dragging spanish trailers. Are these companies now setting up offices in these countries so as to pay less taxes, buy cheaper trucks and employ slave labour?
If that’s the case how long will it be before many others follow, causing eastern ■■■■■■■■■■ of the haulage business, forcing the rest in to bankruptcy, thus causing a monopoly?
Looks like other large spanish companies are following suit, just seen a Romanian reg ``J Carrion´´ truck getting of the boat in Dunkirk 