I know this is a long shot, but a mate of mine has gone missing with his truck in France and if anyone is en route or knows someone who is en route between Calais and the Bordeaux area could they keep an eye open.
Details:
Truck: Spanish registered DAF XF 95 reg: 3047CTD colour white (no livery)
Trailer: Spanish registered Euroliner (mande by Lecinena) reg: R9008BBM with blue curtains (no livery)
I last spoke with Dave on thursday afternoon as we were meant to be running north together, him to UK and me to Holland (Imy truck broke down so I didnt go) - there is absolutely no reason to beleive that he has done a runner.
Last contact was via text to his girlfriend about 8am Saturday 18th November where he said he would call when he got to Folkestone and was parked by Sainsburys.
We have ascertained from both the Kent Police and P&O that his ticket for the Calais - Dover crossing has not been used. Therefore we assume he is in France.
Additionally he has 3 mobiles, personal and works which are Spanish and a UK one, all ring out with a european tone and regularly get “buttoned” to fail the call.
His expected route after crossing into France via Irun would have been:
Bordeaux - Poitiers - Tours - Chartres - Evereuax - Rouen - Calais and it would have been reasonable to assume a ferry crossing on Saturday evening.
There is a small possibility that he might have routed via Paris.
If are transiting France or have a mate or driver who is please keep an eye out for him or his truck, if anyone heres anything then i can be contacted 24hrs a day on my mobile number (0034) 607 667 963.
was he carrying a groupeage load or tiles, if so there is a chance he is in the custody of the douane, especially if his phones appear to work, one of the drivers in the company I work for was detained and they never gave him the chance to contact the outside world, and turned his phone on and off periodically, I would guess they wanted to see who would try to call him etc. Most Friday nights and Saturdays they (Douane) are all over the route your friend will have been using, lets hope this isn’t the case and he has not come to any harm either. Good luck in tracing him
I came back that way this week (through Irun) and was weekended at Western Trucks (Relais des Minieres) but I didn’t see anything strange, mind you I had not read this thread then, if I had I would have been able to be more vigilant.
I spoke with dave on thursday evening and he was loading a full load for Grays, Essex out of the Guadalhorce industrial estate in Malaga - we never do groupage outbound only coming back to Spain. I have however discovered this afternoon that the douane can hold you for upto 72 hours without allowing any contact to the outside world. Should he have been held by the douanes then it is of course possible that we may not hear anything until after about 2000 hrs tuesday - this at present is the straw being clutched at.
We are also waiting to hear from DKV to see which peages he passed through on saturday, in the hope of pinning him down further.
At present word of his absence is spreading throughout the Spanish truck fleet and a number of UK based international hauliers have been kind enough to ask their drivers to keep an eye out too.
Just a thought, if you search Google for “mobile phone tracking”, there are no end of companies who can tell you where his mobile phones are at this present time. They don’t need to have been used even, these sites can tell you where and when his mobile phone(s) last said “hello” to a new phone mast.
I tried the tracking but it only works if the users phone accepts the tracking request and also cant find one that covers a Spanish phone in France - good idea though and thanks.
We have just found out that he went through the peage at Rouen (DKV records)about 1300 saturday, so he was only about two and a half hours out of Calais - we now hope that he has been pulled by the douanes on the St Omer peage (you just get your ticket there) they often stop you just as you get a ticket and pass the barrier.
If he has been done then we should know by latest tonight - the British Consulate in Malaga have not been able to find anything out from France as there are no records of hospital admittances, accidents etc…
A very good point and one that we have been discussing, I have to say there are some alarm bells ringing, but it could be my memory playing tricks.
Dave asked me if I knew a certain road on the Guadalhorce industrial estate and i remember him saying he didnt know the name of the company but had been told to go to number so and so on this particular street, he also said that he had been told that the company didnt have a sign up (nothing unusual in that). Additionally he told me he was tipping in the same place where he had on his last trip to UK after having loaded out of Sevilla. I just assumed he was loading the same sort of stuff (the Sevilla load was cream glass cleaner like windolene) out of a different warehouse.
Now looking back our suspicions have been raised due to various things he said including that the traffic clerk in the office didnt know the name of the company.
Unfortunately Malaga is very close to N.Africa and as such a major trafficking route for drugs, particularly hashish - something we are all aware of - normally however we load from well known large companies - maybe this load and its consignor were a problem, time will tell.
It certainly focuses the mind though to how vulnerable we ALL are regarding the means used by drug smugglers and the implications upon our liberty as innocent “mules”.
We have just heard via the British Consulate that Dave is alive and well in France. They either do not know or do not want to say however where he is or any other info.
We can therefore assume that he has been held by the French customs and is under suspicion for drugs on the trailer.
knowning Dave as I do there is no way on Earth that he would do this knowingly, nor does he use drugs himself - so the French have got themselves another scapegoat.
Once we know for sure the circumstances then I will keep you updated - but I will say this, the attitude of the French ■■■■■!!
While it’s good news that he is alive and well, I think most of us assumed this would be the outcome as soon as we read you r initial post. I hope it gets resolved quickly.
We have already contacted fair trials abroad - but they cannot become involved until such time as he has been seen by the UK Foreign office.
ii will keep you all informed, and keep an eye on the UK press as we are not going to sit and let the French ride rough shod over daves rights, those of his family and indeed any other poor sod who finds themselves in this position.
only just caught this post glad everything turned out ok and your mate has been found not been on here much in the last week due to vacation fly home today from canada so will be back in good old blight wednesday morning shall i bring the canadian rain with me■■?
scaniaman2006:
only just caught this post glad everything turned out ok and your mate has been found not been on here much in the last week due to vacation fly home today from canada so will be back in good old blight wednesday morning shall i bring the canadian rain with me■■?
That, I think is probably one of the most fatuous posts that I have ever come across Scaniaman.
Also, “good old blighty” will be saddened to hear of your return.
