Crikey 
. Anyone just seen the flock of illegals chasing the J.Heebink artic down the road with it’s barn doors flapping open 
. And the french custom blokes just sat there and watched it, preferring to get some footage on tape instead 
Sounds about normal Rob, it’s getting bad again after the lull following the closure of Sangatte.
Makes me feal a little bit more happy now that i aint got to go into Calais anymore, on the down side, does mean that KW don’t get to buy me anymore coffie, on the few time i see him down there.
sdj
Tell you what Biggles if I see Keith down there I’ll drink the coffee for you. 
the worst thing about this now is that we will now be found guilty in calais if the immigrants are found in the trailer at the uk checkpoint there.
i, unlike some others do not put my tir cord in, i think that it leads to a false sense of security by the driver and also leads others that may want to gain entry to the vehicle to believe that the driver will not open the trailer provided the tir cord is intact.
when you are driving what is in fact a tent on wheels and one that you are unable to see the roof of without the aid of ladders or a mirror on a stick then there really isn’t much point putting locks on the doors is there?
i and i believe i may be one of only a handful of drivers doing this, always check the back of my trailer, that isn’t just a look inside the door, i climb into the trailer, over the load and to the front then back again, if i know i can’t get over the load then i open the curtain up at the front and climb to the back.
i do this after every stop on the way home, i check again before i get off the boat too.
But the problem with doing nothing is that you dont have an excuse if you happen to be caught with illegals. In my opinion it is a dangerous thing to climb in the trailer, what do you do if there are 15 albanians in the back. These people are desperate and frightened. At least a seal or padlock is a visual deterrent. I always go through the ferry company checks and have no objections to them putting dogs or co2 monitors inside.
I accept you cannot see the roof but that is the point of seals, If you can get a signature from the company you load at to record the seal number, then that at least covers the driver. by them agreeing that the trailer was free from people when loaded.
We all have different methods, but any method is better than none!
Just be vigilant, dont park in out of the way places and try to check around the trailer axles before driving into the port area.
Couple of weeks ago I’d run up from Nantes to Calais intending to cross over to the UK that evening,however,when I’d fuelled up at the IDS I noticed a long queue waiting to get into the port.The staff were diverting trucks off to the large parking area and so having been told it was at least an hour’s wait to actually get in to the port I returned to the IDS to park for the night.
Next morning I got up at 4am and pulled out of the IDS and onto the side of the road to check the truck (so as not to disturb the drivers who were still sleeping) and found one illegal laying on top of the pallet box between the chassis members and another three inside the pallet box.
I turfed them out.
A couple of weeks previous I’d been stopped for a check in Dover by HMCE and asked them if there was still a lot of illegals coming through,to which they replied ‘No,don’t see hardly any now’
The checks they do at Calais are a joke now,they just aren’t interested.
the shippers no longer carry out checks at calais before embarkation, the calais board of business or whatever it calls itself have the heartbeat monitors and the heat sensor but they are not reliable, then you get to the ferry booth to book on and next is uk immigration, once past that point it is too late now to check, anybody caught with illegals after there is considered to be on uk soil and will face prosecution.
i never park in calais on my way home (usually because i cannot get that far up on a friday), where ever i do park up i don’t move until i have checked in the back, these people are not going to attack you unless provoked so if i did find someone there i would either dial 112 and get the police out or just open the curtains and tell them i am not going anywhere until they get out themselves and that i have called the police already.
if i stop on the last part of the journey (even at pidou) then i again check the trailer.
it has been pointed out to me by immigration that the checklist does not mean that you will not be prosecuted, only that it will go in your favour if it is used, i prefer a personal check and to be absolutely positive that i do not have anyone in the trailer than to rely on seals, tir cords and padlocks that can be manipulated by experienced people smugglers.
i have seen trailers where these people (organised gangs) have pulled the top of the curtain out of the runners to release the bottom of the curtain so they can get people under the gap, they then put the clips back and feed the top of the curtain back into place, the driver is none the wiser that this has been done.
ITs about time drivers refused to do continental work involving a return journey hrough any of the English Channel ports.
And if it’d been me who’d had that guy on the back of my fridge trailer I’d have given him 10 minutes of -25C then beat the living hell out of him.
Conor:
ITs about time drivers refused to do continental work involving a return journey hrough any of the English Channel ports.And if it’d been me who’d had that guy on the back of my fridge trailer I’d have given him 10 minutes of -25C then beat the living hell out of him.
