One off our drivers was stopped in spain near Irun. This trip he was on his own. But the Garda Civil checked his card and found that three weeks earlier he had been double manned and he had not had a nine hour break. Although it was showing 9 hours and 5 minutes on cross keys. His number two had been in the chair when they stopped.Obvious to anyone that it had not been put on rest. Despite his objections the highwaymen fined him. Three thousand five hundred and forty euros. !!! 
Where on earth do they get these figures from.? 
Or is it just because we go to Gibraltar.
Something needs to be done.
Since the 1980ās the Basque area of Spain was accused of being too lenient and turning a blind eye to offences.
Now it has changed.The minimum fines can be 3000 euros to 20,00 euros.
I was fined 2301 euros for an attestation activity letter that had biro writting on it.For the 28 days of keeping records.I had not driven for six months.But dtil had to pay and stuck in Irun for a week.
They are short of money ! Its like the main poncho has said go and make money ? I,ve heard british drivers being pulled for havin an ear piece in Fined 1500 Euros !!! And getting fined for not havin dust caps on ?
Fines for not wearing a.hi viz while broken down you need two warning triangles.
A spare pair of glasses if you wear them.
No speed trap warning on sat nav in France or they take away the vehicle and a heavy fine.
sayley-boy:
They are short of money ! Its like the main poncho has said go and make money ? I,ve heard british drivers being pulled for havin an ear piece in Fined 1500 Euros !!! And getting fined for not havin dust caps on ?
Basque have always been heavy handed with fines 
The earpiece is, or was last year, 100 on the spit or 200 by post. 
Billys top tipā¦ if you have anything that will be properly expensive if spotted like for example a slight mistake on the con ex permit or the fact that you and your ā ā ā ā ā ā had been jogging along on the limiter, not at the permited crawl, just pop in your earpiece. Give em the 100, get your receipt and jog on 
Wave said receipt when pulled later in week and jog on merrily once more
Only had one run in with the Guardia Civil traffic unit.He asked if i had bank cards on me.I said no.Thinking he would find something to fine me for.
He did fine me for vagrancy or for not having means to pay for tyre call out or breakdowns.
I did have bank cards on me.Then saw him stood in the door of the laughing with a drink in hand.
My Scania had a welded on spare wheel carrier but i must have used up the spare.
In Germany you used to get fined for vagrancy.
The Mosses police in the Catalan area are ones to watch out for and the Navara red caps have their moments too.All night weigh bridges.
that billy is a top tip in the top ten of top tips. 
yeah but we show them foreign agencies because if you get pulled in the uk max fine Ā£200 pounds on the spotā¦the rest of Europe must be laughing their ā ā ā ā off at us , French ecotax now germans are bringing out their own version of it ā ā ? uk free free free come on in lads free road use and bash our roads as much as you want for free cos us tax payers will cover the cost of repair ā¦and donāt be fueling in the uk because that might mean having to pay some tax towards your road usage ā¦ this government are taxing us to breaking point and they a letting a guaranteed income go by the by is it just me that see,s this or is there another agenda going on with the government .
Yeah but France and Germany have masses of trucks purely transiting, we dont. Most trucks coming to the UK are delivering here so its not really the same issue. Thatās not to say we shouldnāt charge but we dont have the same issue as Germany and France with trucks transiting.
4aaaa4dd:
yeah but we show them foreign agencies because if you get pulled in the uk max fine Ā£200 pounds on the spotā¦the rest of Europe must be laughing their ā ā ā ā off at us , French ecotax now germans are bringing out their own version of it ā ā ? uk free free free come on in lads free road use and bash our roads as much as you want for free cos us tax payers will cover the cost of repair ā¦and donāt be fueling in the uk because that might mean having to pay some tax towards your road usage ā¦ this government are taxing us to breaking point and they a letting a guaranteed income go by the by is it just me that see,s this or is there another agenda going on with the government .
pierrot 14:
The prime minister of France, Jean-Marc Ayrault, has announced the suspension of the āeco-taxeā until further notice, throughout France. He stated that this is a āpostponement and not a cancellationā, but no future date has been set aside for the tax to be implemented.
He announced, in parliament, on Tuesday 29th October, the complete suspension, throughout France, of the eco-taxe, without giving any indication of a date for its implementation.
From here viewtopic.php?f=3&t=104046, keep up man
switchlogic:
Yeah but France and Germany have masses of trucks purely transiting, we dont. Most trucks coming to the UK are delivering here so its not really the same issue. Thatās not to say we shouldnāt charge but we dont have the same issue as Germany and France with trucks transiting.
And ā ā ?
Iāve seen this point mentioned many, many times. I still donāt understand the point youāre making. What difference does it make that we are the end of the line ?
I know that the UK could have joined the Euro-Vignette system when it was first introduced. The UK government, in their infinite wisdom ( ) decided it wasnāt worth it. Some mention was made of the few tolled bridges and tunnels we have would be required to become free to use. Another major point was that it would be too difficult/expensive to administer, which also makes no sense to me. As we only have a limited number of entry points for trucks, itās easy to ālog inā a truck when it enters the country. Then just apply the daily charge when it leaves, how difficult is that to administer?
I was able to go to Customs in Dover and find out exactly how many days I had been in the UK over the 2001 financial year, to see if I was eligible for an income tax refund. I wasnāt, 105 days, 15 days too many 
They gave me a computer print-out with the truck regā, date, time, port and ship of every crossing in and out Iād done with the days totalled up.
If they can do that, it canāt be so difficult to do it for a truck for a few days.
There pros and cons for charging foreign trucks.
The first point is that any charge would also have to apply to UK hauliers, so weād all get charged. The second is as Luke said the UK is not really a transit Country so most of of the truck will be delivering and collecting goods any tax adds to the price of transportation and therefore to the cost of the product to the consumer.
The advantages are of course the treasury gets another income stream, but I doubt it would do much to level the playing field between UK and East European haulage.
muckles:
There pros and cons for charging foreign trucks.
The first point is that any charge would also have to apply to UK hauliers, so weād all get charged. The second is as Luke said the UK is not really a transit Country so most of of the truck will be delivering and collecting goods any tax adds to the price of transportation and therefore to the cost of the product to the consumer.The advantages are of course the treasury gets another income stream, but I doubt it would do much to level the playing field between UK and East European haulage.
So far this year my boss has paid almost Ć¢āĀ¬6,000 in MAUT on my truck alone, plus the vignette and French Tolls. The little bit more tax on top of that, for the UK part of the journey, is hardly going to be noticeable.
We already pay an annual road fund licence (road user tax), which for my truck is roughly Ā£5 a day for every day of the year, whether itās in the country or not. A daily charge for foreign trucks of between Ā£5 to Ā£10 per day, for each day they are in our country seems reasonable to me. Apply it on a sliding scale, as they do with the Euro-Vignette. The more days you pre-pay, the cheaper it is per day. Post pay it at the top rate.
As we are already paying road tax, why would we have to pay it twice?
Simon:
muckles:
There pros and cons for charging foreign trucks.
The first point is that any charge would also have to apply to UK hauliers, so weād all get charged. The second is as Luke said the UK is not really a transit Country so most of of the truck will be delivering and collecting goods any tax adds to the price of transportation and therefore to the cost of the product to the consumer.The advantages are of course the treasury gets another income stream, but I doubt it would do much to level the playing field between UK and East European haulage.
So far this year my boss has paid almost Ć¢āĀ¬6,000 in MAUT on my truck alone, plus the vignette and French Tolls. The little bit more tax on top of that, for the UK part of the journey, is hardly going to be noticeable.
We already pay an annual road fund licence (road user tax), which for my truck is roughly Ā£5 a day for every day of the year, whether itās in the country or not. A daily charge for foreign trucks of between Ā£5 to Ā£10 per day for each day they are in our country seems reasonable to me.
Iām not saying it would be wrong to charge foreign trucks, but Iām sure that UK hauliers would have to pay the same taxes as charged to foreign trucks. So maybe scrap the VED and introduce a Vignette. but at Ā£5 a day thatās equivalent to the top rate of VED, which is more than we pay.
Also many European countries are opting for a distance based charge, that would probably cost UK hauliers far more than VED, but then foreign would be subject to the same charge, so at least it would add to their costs as well as the UK hauliers.
I must be thinking of the VED from a few of years ago, on my truck.
If it works out at under Ā£5 a day for us, thatāll be the discount for pre-paying for the year. Naturally a discount for pre-paying a year would apply across the board
a few months ago i was near irun on the national they wanted 1500 euros of me for the company name missing of a document luckily his colleague seen another piece of paer with it on and aceppted that
Simon:
And ā ā ?
Iāve seen this point mentioned many, many times. I still donāt understand the point youāre making.
Completely missed āIām not saying we shouldnāt chargeā then I assumeā¦
The point is so very simple I cant understand how you donāt get it, unlike France and Germany we do not have trucks (well, tiny amounts) using our roads to transit and not contribute to our economy. Trucks coming to the UK deliver, a lot of trucks in Germany and France do not. It really is very simple. And trucks delivering do indeed contribute something to our economy, unlike trucks simply transiting. So my point was simply comparing us to Germany and France isnāt comparing equals. Get it now? Or not?
Some Rouitier restaurants now have barriers.Only allowed to park if buying a meal there.
The EE boys cook up by the trailer.Some have fridges in the side lockers.
They will not spend money in the transit countries.
Barbeziuex truckstop is an example.Barriers.
But free or discounted parking if buying so many litres of fuel.Or so much bought in the shop.
The EE boys would block spaces for drivers wanting a meal while they dont spend a cent inside the building.Not even a coffee or apperitif/digestif drink.
you forgot to mention the availability of a beach whenever youāre weekended whereever in europe, toby
No beach.No trip.No go.Not shipping out.I ask not to be sent to land locked countries.
toby1234abc:
No beach.No trip.No go.Not shipping out.I ask not to be sent to land locked countries.
Switzerland has a Navy !
If itās got a Navy, itās got sea.
If itās got seas, its got beaches.