critic
you can probably pick up a sewage farm cheap…but I bet the wages are crap 
Jules
Boots O’Lead:
Don’t want to burst anyone’s bubble, but…WTD
Drivers hours and tacho regs
Hauliers wanting to make the most out of their vehicles
Yes and they will also have these to contend with in their own Country as well
Boots O’Lead:
rent
You’ll probably find them coming over in Vans etc to treat as their homes, remember, they are use to hardship
Boots O’Lead:
council tax
Only if they register with the local authorities for premises
Boots O’Lead:
food
These people will be use to living of scraps, fish and chips will be like a luxury food to them
Boots O’Lead:
clothes
Do we not take clothes on holiday with us?
Boots O’Lead:
transportation - inc road tax, UK fuel costs
Again, they are coming over here to create a better life for their families, there is nothing to say that their families will be joining them straight away
Boots O’Lead:
beer & ents at UK prices
I think this will be the last thing on their minds when given a golden oportunity
Boots O’Lead:
tax
26p in the pound aint a great lot to worry about
Boots O’Lead:
these apply to anyone working in this country so I think it may take more than six months to raise the money to buy a farm
You’ll be surprised what 6 months wages in the UK would buy them back in their own countries, so dont joke about it, you could be deciding to take retirement and moving over there LOl
Boots O’Lead:
of course, unless their driving standards are up to scratch they may ‘buy the farm’ a lot sooner - only this time they might take a few unsuspecting bystanders with themnot a comforting thought
Jules
Lets just hope that this is not the case
As I have written in a previous post. If Eastern Europeans or Maltese or Cypriots are coming here to work they will earn the same wage as you and me, If they are living in a truck for a week then they might be able to send a couple of quid home. The jobs at Tesco, NFT and Northern Dairies will be still yours.
The European jobs have already gone to Eastern Europe about 10 years ago. The companies then doing Eastern bloc work like Kepstowe, David Croome RH Freight and the Freight Forwarders, Davies Turner, Schenker etc already employ these blokes as drivers or sub contractors.
They are still drivers and many are good at the job. as for not being able to read and understand our language you will probably find that they already speak 3 or 4 languages now. An international driver at Pekaes or Hungarocamion had to be a trained mechanic and multilingual before being let out of the country in a truck.
When I was driving regularly to Turkey and Greece the drivers who would help were these same people. The transport industry in the former commie bloc is just as depressed as it is here. The Poles and Latvians would sooner work at home and see their families. “If the dutch paid 200% more we would be all catching the ferry from Hull” We have all been there and found it is not as lucrative as it sounds, You cannot live in a truck for weeks on end without spending money. Believe me I did it!
I agree with Wheel Nuts. I think we will see some drivers coming over here, but most of those who would come over are already driving for European hauliers, the others will stay at home preferring to stay in the environment they know. We will also hear stories of drivers being exploited by employers and British drivers losing their jobs, most of this will be media hype and based on very little fact.
As for the drivers not being upto scratch, most of the East Europeans I have worked with and met seem to be very resourceful and speak English to a reasonable standard, some Romanians I worked with told me they had to learn it in school even though they weren’t allowed to talk to westerners during the communist era.
TruckNet UK:
jammymutt:
But arent there enough of these people over here already?.Thats as safe as i can word it before it gets booted.
Discuss the issue using reasoned researched debate= No Problem
I didnt use any research Rikki i just used my eyes.
muckles:
jammymutt:
To answer Jammymutt’s comment:
But aren’t there enough of these people over here already?They are doing work that nobody else will do.
I have seen this first hand when I go to farms picking up potato’s almost all the grading is done by East Europeans, 30 years ago the local women, including my mother, did this work but rural communities have changed, as have opportunities for women. Most of the women who would have done this work in the past no longer live in the villages because of the price of housing or can get better pay and better conditions working in Supermarkets.I do have concerns about EU enlargement, but I think we need a more balanced view of the problem than is given to us by the press.
Does that include driving trucks ? or will you only be bothered about it when you are replaced by someone working for the minimum wage?.
It wont be long until they are importing people to do all the work in this country, its then and only then someone might just take an interest, like i have said before i am not racist but i do believe in having a national identity and im quite happy to keep it.
There are already many countries in the EU who have high unemployment and low wages yet despite free movement we have not seen them come here and take jobs from us, but come here do jobs were we either do not have enough skilled people or not enough people willing to do the work. As has already been said on this thread most of the drivers who would come to work in this country are already working for European Hauliers and are moving goods round the UK.
As for a national identity. What is being English, flag waving at the last night of the proms, standing for God Save the Queen? I don’t feel that I share much in common with somebody from the centre of Manchester or London. This country is a diverse mixture of people and has been for centuries
worry about what we are doing not what might happen it used to be in britain that time and a half was paid after eight hrs theres some drivers on this forum whove only just got that back eight hrs or less in some jobs seem to be enough to work not in this job no driver shortage some people would rather not do it . i meen 60 to 70 hrs for 40 hrs money most drivers i know dont want a night out let alone work in holland but then theres quite a few scottish boys working in herts and essex
A one bed room flat in Kings Lynn caught fire last year 35 chinese workers were living there.
Storys of gang masters paying, after exspenses for house, food, travel to & from the job etc as little as a few pounds & one story of less than a pound per week are common.
To honest I would not want to work for any company that gets its workforce in this manner & feel they are going to get exactly what they are paying for, trouble & lots of it.
rh freight in nottingham (where i USED to work), have been subbing european work to parme trans (estonian company) for four years now. whilst i have nothing against anyone from any country regardless of skin colour trying to do the best for themselves and there family, the potential for meltdown in this industry caused by this problem is huge. the employers are getting away with murder exploiting drivers from other countries and our own for that matter. some of the lads seemed to think that it would ease when a lot of the baltic and eastern european countries came into the eu as they would probably be under a minimum wage setup but theres nothing to stop them using others countries which arent coming ie romania/bulgaria etc. the problem lies at the feet of the government and we all now how much they care for the haulage industry in the uk. i`m not a tory or labour supporter i think there all as bad! rant over 
Get your head out of the cloulds,the drivers are allowde to drive in uk on/after May1st never mind left or right handed,if they have the ticket they can drive,can any one say different,as for wages it,s been said allready wait and see if turkey gets in,if a truck can be parked up like the turkish trucks do waiting for a load/backload what could they do while waiting once inside the EU and thats no way puting down the turkish drivers thats the way it is.
critic, you mention companies that are making ground breaking wage deals, go on then name them 
the only one i have heard of is co-op giving there drivers an 18% payrise and cut the hours down to 48 thats a shift pattern of 4 on 4 off. well done to them but i can’t see many other companies following them.critic i really do hope you are right but honestly i cannot see us getting these big payrises. i suppose we will need to wait and see.heres one for the bosses of a haulage firm out there, what are you doing for your drivers how much of a rise are you going to give your drivers
Jammy, this is already the case, and has been for many years, im from Derby originally and growing up there and working there in all areas this was the case, at first these people did all the jobs that English people did not want to do, yet now more of derby is owned and run by these people than the English, i say these people because there are many diferent race’s.
I now live in Lincolnshire and there are many gangers and firms that bring all manner of people in to do sorts of jobs, there was a company last year who rented half of a large mobile home park and put cossovans in them to work in the pack houses, they were over here on a six months visa or somthing like that and the firm laid on busses taxis etc to ferry them to work they even put a disco on for them weekly.
also a lot of the field workers around here are indian and travel daily from leicester, one crew drove here from leicester last week and got to the field at 7.30am, the famer would not let them work as he was waiting for orders from the big supermarkets so they sat in the mini bus till 2.30pm when the orders came in all for no pay then they worked till it was dark to make up some money.
There is another mobile home park that has russian, cossovans, and some that i cannot understand at all so dont know where they are from, the point is in the big citys there has been an ever increasing amount of people moving in, but i was suprised when i came here to rural Lincolnshire to see how many Race’s are here and it has been growing and growing in diversity ever since.
am i not right in thinking that you dont have to pay tax in this country if you are here for six months and some where else for six months?? i know this used to be the case.
i dont think that this will put all British/English drivers on the dole or force them into a cut in wages etc but unless enough voices are joined together no one will hear, the problem is will enough people speak?
[/quote]
am i not right in thinking that you dont have to pay tax in this country if you are here for six months and some where else for six months?? i know this used to be the case.
afaik, most people are on PAYE (except high earners) - my ex-wife is norwegian and when she worked in the uk paid taxes like everyone else from day 1 (as I did when i worked over there…)
4 on 4off how many sats and suns do they have to work now for the 18% rise if they got overtime after 40 hrs there prob worse off in the long run still they prob think night out money is part of there wages ban sunday working ban sleeping in lorries a njght watchman ■■■ security guard earns more than £17.50 -£20 anight see if your manager govner sleeps in a cab next time hes away on the firms buisness or even if he works a 12hr shift on a sat or sunday thanks for letting me work here
bigron, can’t argue with you.these drivers will be working for normal time on sat/sun. instead of the xand half/double time. 
if you do a ten hour shift in nine how long will it be untill you only get nine hrs if your on a job that they tell you you must not stop go straight to depot with no facilities will they stop you 45mins every shift of cause they will ---- if you dont ask for more will they offer it of course not . companies are moving minimum wage jobs to 3RD world countries their saving fortunes are things getting cheaper i dont think so do you think they would spend big money on health and safety if they didnt HAVE to ive only ever seen people in HI VIZs get run over
Bigron: “companies are moving minimum wage jobs to 3RD world countries”
Not only minimum wage jobs. Americans are finding to their astonishment that websites can be made cheaper in India. Call centres too. Need a website for your company? You’ll end up paying around 300 quid a page in the UK. In the developing world they’ll make you one for 30. What would you do if you needed a website?
Globalization spares nobody. There’s no point moaning about it. You have to retrain or you’ll be pushed aside by someone who is prepared to do work harder than you for less money.
When I was young growing up in Kent, I picked fruit and even cabbages. So did all my mates. We thought it was normal. The reason farms all over the country are full of Kosovans and whatnot is because native English youngsters have no need to do any hard work. My two teenage sons think it’s insane to even think of doing something like driving a truck or pick fruit.
Is that progress? My boys tell me it is. The Kosovans are making more money in a safe country than back home. The fruit gets picked. The farmer is happy. The consumer gets cheap apples. What’s wrong with that? Sitting on your fat zb in a truckstop moaning isn’t going to make any difference at all.
Too take a slight issue with what you say about lifting the veg out of the fields,yeah hard work for sure but when you did it did you get the adult money or did the farmer get it on the cheap.No problem with any working on a level field (no pun inten)but if the produce is picked by everyone on the same money the end user would not see the difference in the range of the prices,maybe pay a bit more then that would be the same for all,it,s when gangmasters pay crap to the illegal workers and make a bunch and the farmer can under cut the ligit guy.
kitkat:
critic, you mention companies that are making ground breaking wage deals, go on then name them
Hi Kitkat,
On page six of this months Truck and Driver there is a report on a company called A.F. Blakemore & Son Ltd who are the distribution arm of the Spar stores.
They have just agreed a pay deal boosting drivers wages by 27% making their wage now 26,000
Working hours will be cut from 57 to 48 by March 2005
Holiday 's goes up from 25 to 30 days although drivers can work a further 10 days for extra pay if work is available.
Drivers will have to work Saturday’s on a rota basis to increase flexibility.
Looks like they are trying to do the right thing
cheers
STEVE.
bigron:
4 on 4off how many sats and suns do they have to work now for the 18% rise if they got overtime after 40 hrs there prob worse off in the long run still they prob think night out money is part of there wages ban sunday working ban sleeping in lorries a njght watchman ■■■ security guard earns more than £17.50 -£20 anight see if your manager govner sleeps in a cab next time hes away on the firms buisness or even if he works a 12hr shift on a sat or sunday thanks for letting me work here
Most of the companies offering these pay deals don’t do nights out, they have built the depots to allow for turning a job round in a shift, which means they can then use the truck for 24 hours.
You keep saying that nights out in the truck should be banned, for many drivers it’s part of the job, where do you suggest they sleep back in digs like the old days or maybe in hotel and travel lodges? Having just spent the last 2 years being put up in hotels I have come to the conclusion I’d rather sleep in the cab. The only good point is having washing facilities and toilets on suite.