hi guys
does anyone out there know the rules for cabotage i.e foreign companies using foreign trucks to carry out store deliveries in the uk.
we work for on of the supermarket chains and have just had our work cut so a german company can move in and steal our work …any advise to the legalities of this would be appriecated as im sure you will agree none of us can afford to loose work in this way
Try looking at this PDF
sorry but i am unable to change the above into a link,found this by looking on google under —Rules for cabotage in Europe for lorrys,
take a slow read through ,it seems to say they are not allowed to carry out
sustained work and must leave the country after a certain time limit,
HOPE THIS might help you out.
Fixed it to show a link Pete. Coffeeholic.
The rules are quite simple, if you have an operators license anywhere in Europe you can work anywhere in Europe, either on international or national. The only major difference is that you need to have either a subsidiary company with a v.a.t. number in the country where you intent working or employ an accountant as your “Fiscal Agent” in that country so that you charge v.a.t. & account for it in that country. I am not sure if the U.K. managed to get the rules changed for the number of days/weeks that a truck can work in the U.K. without leaving it because they had been trying to get it dropped to a lower number.
There has been a large number of Lithuanians & Poles pulling drop-trailers from Dartford for the past few years & they catch the ferry back to Belgium on Saturday to fill up with derv & then come back to work another week.
As someone who has worked most of his life out of the U.K. I am amazed that there is still any transport companies left in the U.K.
There has been much said about these ‘cheap labour’ drivers from east europe, how they are ‘steeling our work’ etc. But i don’t recall anyone mentioning the low life British shipping companies or the two faced forwarding companies who give them the work
What about ‘distresstriangle’ and ‘RH frieght’ for example, both contract out lots of work on the cheap to these foriegn companies willing to do the work for pennies
The drivers after all are doing exactly what we all are…just trying to feed our famillies and pay our bills
talking to a polish lad yesterday who was waiting for the loading bay i was tipping in, his english wasn’t great but the gist of it was he worked seven weeks non stop doing italy-uk and then went home for two weeks, his wages for the seven week stint? 3500 euro 
If the Polish driver was getting 3500 Euro for his 9 weeks they have had a massive increase in wages. Just before Christmas I was with some Polish drivers who all admitted to running non stop for two months before going home for a couple of weeks & they were getting 700 Euro per month. Everybody says that they earn perhaps three times what a teacher gets in Poland but they are having to live with us, paying the same for their food as we do. It perhaps explains why we are all having our fuel syphoned & trailer sheets cut.
Their is a bit in this months T&D about VOSA wanting to get touch on cabotage and a number to call to report instances of this
Hi!
The Biker:
Their is a bit in this months T&D about VOSA wanting to get touch on cabotage and a number to call to report instances of this
They also mentioned a Suffolk based firm who have recently lost their operators licence because they were running Dutch-registered trucks to haul containers on UK roads.
In this case, the scenario seems to have been UK operator sets up foreign firm and runs foreign reg’d trucks in the UK. If it’s clear that the foreign reg’d trucks are actually based in the UK full time, then I guess that’s what swung it.
jonb2610:
It perhaps explains why we are all having our fuel syphoned & trailer sheets cut.
uh oh - not another one 
and our barns raped and our women torched i suppose?