Well, my days of running to Russia ended because eastern Europeans became equipped to do the work and could do it for less, so if anybody has an axe to grind, then it should be me.
But I don`t. The World constantly changes. It seems futile to show hostility towards eastern European drivers, hauliers or governments. It simply will not change anything.
You may as well be hostile towards the straddle-carrier drivers at Southampton Docks because they are “stealing our 1970`s Middle-Eastern work”
WN if there was that much of a difference for the Germans and you working over there then i think the Eastern Europeans would be working there would`nt they or maybe they just dont allow it like we do■■?.
Have you heard of the Gastarbeiter?
They were invited into the German workforce, because there were not enough skilled prople to work in the country. These guests live amongst the Germans, speak the language, and even pay taxes and drive German cars.
Well, over 200 views and no - one has any real information.
When I wrote the origional post, I should have excluded TruckNet members.
We all know that you are either ex-pat or o/d’s who look and contribute to such posts.
Again, heresay and gossip means nothing.
An example.
You see a driver in a 10 year old DAF or Scania at Corley Services having his lunch out of the side lockers on his trailer.
By speaking to this driver, you are not showing hostility or resentment, you are simply having a chat with a ’ fellow trucker '.
Untill someone posts " I was having a chat with (name ) at Corley to-day, he comes from ( country) and drives for ( company) ,he earns ( £ ) and is in the U.K. for ( time ), no - one will actually know what foreign drivers are paid.
It seems people are knocking the foreigners with no facts.
I was refering to drivers who bring trucks into the UK, just as British drivers travel into Europe. When I mentioned ‘Poor Guy’s’.
If however you are refering to drivers arriving in the UK and taking British jobs at British companies for far less than British drivers then I do agree with you all to some extent.
There is a minimum wage over there, so report the compnies that pay below it, don’t blame the drivers, they are just trying to survive, blame the unscrupulous companies that practice such employment methods.
May I sugest talking to employees and unions at large companies, Argos, Tesco etc with a black list of these companies and get them blacked.
Martin Niemoller was a German cleric who opposed Hitler and spent four years in a concentration camp and was eventually freed by the allies. He wrote the following:
‘First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.’
So where were the truckers when the mines were closed - blacklegging and hauling the coal for the tories. Where were the truckers when the print unions were smashed - hauling the papers for Murdoch. Where were the truckers when the steel industry, car industry and countless other jobs were sent abroad?
Now the people who drag their knuckles on the ground when they walk are wetting themselves about losing their jobs to Eastern Europeans - its not going to happen guys. When Greece and Portugal joined the EU the same rumours were flying around and it didn’t happen then and its not going to happen now. And to be brutally honest, even if it did do you think the average member of Joe public will care, as long as they can carry on buying cheap goods in the shops they don’t give a toss.
Oh and by the way I’m half Polish, born in this country and any person who tries to interrogate me when I am parked up at a truckstop is going to get very familiar with my steel toecaps.
And don’t worry about the driver shortage - any job with a maximum of two weeks training to qualify can be sorted - that’s why the average driver earns £300 a week and doctors earn £1600
I am too tired tonight to reply to this again… it may lead to abuse and a telling off if I do.
TC got it right!! a driver is a driver is a driver!!
Quick short story … today whilst in Lidl’s at Lutterworth there were 4 Portugese and a Pole who was working for a German company. In the Goods In Office was a cracking looking lady who loved having 6 guys around her and enjoyed the attention. ALL 6 guys were joking with her… the others in faltering English but they were trying!! I got talkign to the Pole and he asked me for a cigarette… I told him I only had tobacco. he was thrilled. It was his first time in England and he had not realised how expensive ■■■■ and baccy were here… so the daft devil had run out and was waiting till he got back to Belgium to get some. I had half a 50gr. pack left and passed it to him… told him to have it. I had loads more in the cab. The guy looked amazed… jesus, it only cost me €3.65 … just over £2.
Its something called the Brotherhood of Truckers!!! How many of you would have even bothered to speak to the guy let alone help him out?
I will keep my comments on those that would have ignored him till I am less tired and irritable
davecsm:
Martin Niemoller was a German cleric who opposed Hitler and spent four years in a concentration camp and was eventually freed by the allies. He wrote the following:
‘First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist, so I said nothing. Then they came for the Social Democrats, but I was not a Social Democrat, so I did nothing. Then came the trade unionists, but I was not a trade unionist. And then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew, so I did little. Then when they came for me, there was no one left to stand up for me.’
So where were the truckers when the mines were closed - blacklegging and hauling the coal for the tories. Where were the truckers when the print unions were smashed - hauling the papers for Murdoch. Where were the truckers when the steel industry, car industry and countless other jobs were sent abroad?
Now the people who drag their knuckles on the ground when they walk are wetting themselves about losing their jobs to Eastern Europeans - its not going to happen guys. When Greece and Portugal joined the EU the same rumours were flying around and it didn’t happen then and its not going to happen now. And to be brutally honest, even if it did do you think the average member of Joe public will care, as long as they can carry on buying cheap goods in the shops they don’t give a toss.
Oh and by the way I’m half Polish, born in this country and any person who tries to interrogate me when I am parked up at a truckstop is going to get very familiar with my steel toecaps.
And don’t worry about the driver shortage - any job with a maximum of two weeks training to qualify can be sorted - that’s why the average driver earns £300 a week and doctors earn £1600
Greece and Portugal are not exporters of labour, Poland is. Most Polish sailors I’ve spoken to and I’ve spoken to plenty have never even worked on a Polish ship, they simply enlist in a Marine Agency in Szczecin or Gdynia are trained and sent directly to foreign ships as cheap labour. I have access to crew lists of ships and can tell you that the majority of the ships that call at River Trent ports for instance have Polish or mainly Polish crews, yet none of them are owned or managed in Poland. The same can be said about Russian/Estonian/Latvian/Lithuanian seamen but in Europe, Poland is the bigboy in labour exporting and there is absoluetly nothing to suggest they wont crack the market, be trained as truck drivers, or existing truckers enlisting with British agencies and doing the same. Then again it may never happen, we dont know whats around the corner but the potential is definetly there for it to happen and my personal view is that come the WTD and the demand for drivers rises sharply, the import of E.European drivers will start and once it starts it will just keep rolling until theres a surplus of drivers.
Something I nearly forgot!!
Whilst in a very big well known firm picking up a load this afternoon, I went into the Traffic Office to get my gate Pass stamped. Whilst stamping there ( was being ignored as usual), I heard one of the ladies behind the jump who was on the phone explode at someone. She came off the phone moaning her head off!! I heard her say to her buddy sat across the desk and I quote
“That was ****** phoning to cancel the wave two this evening. I have just spent 15 minutes trying to explain to a Polish driver how to get to ******”. I am not ringing him back to tell him to come back here"
I didn’t have the balls to ask if they were employing Poles so will have to ask one of their drivers… NOT that I am particuarly bothered but it is always nice to have facts when you post on here!
Oh yes they are, just not to us. And maybe since joining the EU their standards of living have risen so much that they don’t need to move abraod for work. Just think of what has happened to Eire. And in a few years the accession countries will have similar standards of living to this country and there will be no need for them to move here
I find i laughable that someUK drivers are worried about former East european drivers “stealing” their jobs, when even within the UK there is an enourmous difference in pay between north and south. Around Heathrow £10-12 an hour is possible, yet in N.east £6 is good. So why don’t the Geordies all move down and take advantage? Similar in S. Wales, where the pay is a lot higher in Bristol/ Swindon area.
Simple reason … travel housing friends and family, Poles and Czechs have them too and I’m yet to see one driving for Eddie, Wincanton, or Tesco, and Tesco have stores in Czech and Slovakia.
My main concerns are:
Why do I have to put up with crap “truckstops”
Why do I have to break the law to be sensible doing my job ie silly 40mph limits on trunk A roads and 50mph on A1 A64 A38 A14 etc.
Low wages for long hours, though I believe they are improving… but too slowly!
Lets talk about the issues that matter ,and what we could do to do something about if we ALL STUCK TOGETHER, INCLUDING EMPLOYERS.
I have to say that I agree with point from both sides. As for the coment about steel works and coal mines etc. The World needs trucks, it doesn’t need coal. When the coal mines closed it wasn’t to export the jobs, it was because coal was a fuel of the past, one of the worst polutants in history. I did sympathise with those who lost their jobs in both coal and steel industries and it’s a pity the unions didn’t, I noticed the union top men had two or three homes and two or three cars.
If driving jobs in france could give you twice the income you get in the UK you would be trying to move there just as the imigrants comming into the UK are doing. … Don’t blame them for trying to better themselves.
A few years ago British drivers were flocking to Holland and Germany because the wages were better than they were in England at the time even though many of them were not being paid the full rate that they were entiltled to the same happened with British construction workers in Germany.
I didn´t hear anyone complaining about the situation then as the British took the jobs off of the foreigners in their own countries .
Another case of its OK so long as it doesn´t happen here ■■?
I have come online this morning cos this thread is starting to make my blood boil!
Obviously it must be OK for UK workers to flock abroad to get better wages yet oh no, the poor sod in Eastern Europe mustn’t come here to try and better his standard of life and that of his family. Sounds to me like there is either a lot of bigots on here or as I suspect, a lot of very ill informed people. I can just see them now in the company uniform… the work yard lawyers. The type that stand there telling drivers what they told this one and what they told that one. All of them full of ■■■■!!
I wonder what would have happened in 1940 when GB had no one to fly its Spitfires and Hurricanes■■? do you people that listen to Sally Traffic think the Polish War Memorial is because of what happened to the Poles in THEIR country■■? In1940 when we had lots of aeroplanes and no buggers to fly them, who was it that flocked over here ( escaping the atrocities in their own country at the same time ) and formed the Polish squadrons??
So in my opinion, as they helped rescue our country in '40 by flying aeroplanes, they are welcome here 60 years on to drive our trucks.
There are so many misinformed remarks on this topic that it is quite sad to think so many can be so stupid.
Most of these ‘foreign’ drivers are 10 times better a driver than most of us will ever be!!! How often do you see a foreign truck on the hard shoulder witth a tyre fitter or a breakdown truck by their side■■? Rarely because most foreign drivers are able to get under their cab and fix it themselves!!!
As I recall, and I am sure the experienced Euro drivers will correct me if I am wrong, ALL Hungariocammion drivers have to pass a full mechanics course before they are allowed on the road!! Not a three week jolly where they were taught the basics… a full three year course!!! Most Willi Betz drivers are able to repair their trucks if they break down. I have always had nothing but admiration for the Eastern European drivers… if you had been to these countries as myself, the likes of Truckyboy, Vince and John@RH etc have, then you would have seen the absolute rubbish these drivers had to put up with. Trucks that a lot of you would have laughed at if asked to drive them.
The crap the Eastern drivers have to put up with from drivers in this country is totally unwarranted!!
■■■■■■■■, I am going to work before I really get started
I have to agree with both Vasco and Bear. I’ve said it before, remember it’s not a one way street, any UK driver is entitled to work in any other EU country but most won’t do that because they may have to learn to speak ‘foreign’ or something.
Of the thousands of British drivers and construction workers who flocked to these countries 99% of them returned home on a permanent basis within 2 years as they found that the lure of extra money was not as great so as to compensate sufficiently for the lack of family life.
I was one of those drivers but the difference was I moved straight out there with my family and I am still driving for a Dutch company more than 20 years later.
It stands to reason that the same will happen with Johnny Foreigner at some stage as their economy rapidly improves and the difference in earning potential decreases the desire to return to the home shores will increase and back they will go.
Also companies that are employing Eastern European drivers will suddenly find that their employment policies are short sighted as when these drivers start to head home the companies employing vast amounts of them will find themselves back to square one and without drivers, the same thing that happened to several Dutch companies years ago who went for nearly 100% British drivers then when the drivers went home the Dutch refused to work for them and they went out of business.
And as Vince and others have said before me these people have an extremely generous nature to them when we have been over there and many is the time that they have insisited that I share their meals when queueing for days waiting to cross Eatern European borders and they always refused any kind of payment what so ever even though we always had far more than they did.
Another thing is that people shouldn’t believe everything they read about these countries, many of the new member states are booming at the moment and in some cases are doing better than Britain. The Baltic States in particular are enjoying economic growth, investment and low unemployment.
Hi just putting in my 2 pence worth so u guys that are all for these european workers. What are you going to do in 2 years time or when ever, they move in take your job for less money. Then when u lose your house and they move in, are u going to be so for them then? no you wont u will be the first in line, to send them back home. just my 2 pence
You mean the same way that people have been saying this about immigrant workers for the last 40 odd years? Hasn’t happened yet on the massive scale that the doom and gloom merchents have been predicting.
PMAC:
Hi just putting in my 2 pence worth so u guys that are all for these european workers. What are you going to do in 2 years time or when ever, they move in take your job for less money. Then when u lose your house and they move in, are u going to be so for them then? no you wont u will be the first in line, to send them back home. just my 2 pence
We could just move to eastern europe where (according to the scaremongerers) you can live for tuppence a week and then work in the UK for British companies
the same happened with British construction workers in Germany.
so u guys that are all for these european workers. What are you going to do in 2 years time or when ever, they move in take your job for less money. Then when u lose your house and they move in, are u going to be so for them then? no you wont u will be the first in line, to send them back home. just my 2 pence 
