Actros has rear windows. It pees me off when drivers pull all the curtains and leave them that way all day. I shouldn’t have to get in and open the dam things each time. As for reversing, the only assistance I like when given is a point as to which direction I need to make the arse end go and the obvious WHOAH!! 
..none of this "right hand down, RIGHT HAND DOWN!!! crap
1 Like
Bay 2 sorted the men from the boys…
Bay 2, reoccurring nightmares and PTSD.
Designed in the days of horse and carts..
And passing the attitude test with a jumped up security guard with a chip on his shoulder, maybe the wife had an affair with a driver?
1 Like
This shows some teamwork by a couple of euro drivers.
All is not lost after all.
So who put the chain on and why?
The chain would have been put on by the road enforcement officers of that country, they would take it off when they get paid the fine.
As @Stuar said.
Unlike Aus it may be possible for a foreign truck driver caught for an offence to avoid paying fines by “doing a runner” and jumping the border.
It isn’t as easy to “get away with” as some seem to imagine, but there are cases when it is attempted.
I have never had the wheels clamped or chained on the continent.
They just take the vehicle documents and the international permit but never the keys.
The French were a bit sly as when stopped they want to see the passport then if they find something wrong they take that away along with the other documents but legally they can’t take the passport.
So what’s the point of the transshipment? They’ve still got to pay the fine to get the truck released.
I got stopped by DVSA enforcement when trying to leave the dock after coming off the ferry from France.
He seized my permit.
The trailer was due for a delivery so I paid an owner driver who was in the port to take it out the port gates.
They probably had to transship the tyres if the load may have had a pre confirmed booking time with a financial penalty if it didn’t arrive on time or the customer may say his goods didn’t arrive on time and removed their haulage contract for breaking the terms and conditions of the contract.
I have heard of trailers destined to go to car factories are so critical that if they don’t arrive on time the factory has to stop for just in time deliveries that fail to show up, but that would mainly be for car parts.
I think they transshipped it as the boss may have said it would take a few days or a week to raise the money to pay the release fee and fine.
I was sat in a Spanish service station for 12 days as the boss for some reason just sat me there like a muppet.
I’ve just thought, the tractor unit number plate registration number is the same as the registration number for the trailer as they are married together ,for operators in Europe this is a legal requirement.
For UK operators going to Europe, they must have a trailer registration document and trailer number affixed to the rear of the trailer( Not the number plate).
In the UK we can swap the number plate of the tractor unit to put it on any trailer we swap over with.
SDU has raised an interesting question, what’s the point of transshipping the load as the police or commercial vehicle enforcement have immobilised the tractor unit wheels?
The other truck they are loading the load in to will have a different trailer and unit registration number to the truck that has been immobilised so the paperwork for the load will not match up.
Not when I worked for the Dutch and Belgians it wasn’t.
The unit reg and trailer reg were different, and on the back of the trailer at Brit European I had a kooiap (moffet) attatched which had yet another different reg.
A ‘child’ who worked for VOSA tried to be clever one day about this, trying to talk down to me about it.
I told him to ring the EU in Brussels to complain, …the older guy with him basically told him to shut the f. up and sent me on my way.
I hope you put that little whipper snapper in his place.
At one company I worked for who basically were cowboys, the Dad of one of the so called directors was a big chief somewhere in Wales of what was then known as VOSA, the Dad said to the son who is Welsh, don’t you dare set up a haulage firm on his patch, so he didn’t and found another operating base not in Wales.
Sounds correct.
The UK trailer number plate in the EU was introduced at the time of Brexit. It was (top of my head) to do with the previous Vienna agreement, that we were up until then exempted from.
Generally vehicles are OK throughout EU, if they are OK in their own country.
I think in France, Germany and Belgium the rear of the trailers will have only the reg number of the trailer. Spain has both the trailer and unit numbers displayed.
Easy enough on CMR haulage. Use the “Subsequent Carriers” box.
Good point Fr.
Another point I just remembered..
While driving in UK we had to have our tacho time set at Euro time, not UK time.
Another point that stroppy VOSA kid objected to.
I was stopped numerous times in Foreign regd trucks, that was the only time I had any ruck with them, as I was fully aware of the preliminary ‘‘attitude test’’.. and tbf found them ok.
Another time I was stopped in my home county and met with a guy doing the usual Brit thing of shouting at me in broken type English…‘‘Good morning driver, how are you today’’ thinking I was foreign
When I replied ‘‘Aye canny mate, how you doin’ like’’ in his same accent his face was a picture…and an ‘ice breaker’.