Just wondering if those of you heading across the water are ever afraid of this thing, just reading the thread in the other forum about the driver held in France set me thinking. I remember from doing groupage for danzas out of germany that it could very easily happen. Maybe there is more we could do to prevent it.
Was thinking of a retur to continental work but this really frightens me.
I would of thought naming and shaming the places that have sent these loads out from would be a good start. That way as many people as poss would know who and where never to load out from and hopefully these dodgy companies would then go out of business or at least not expect a Brit to take it.
So we need company names and exact places compiled into one place.
It’s always been a nagging problem in the back of my mind every time I’ve come through Dover and I have little doubt that over the last 20 years or so I have been used as the unwitting mule at least once and probably many times.
I visited a friend in Canterbury Prison once, when I asked about his fellow lags he told me that the majority were foreign truck drivers caught at Dover with drugs in their loads.
We hear about the Brits held abroad but not about poor Pedro stopped with a pallet of dope in among his groupage.
The analogy I always use is “Imprisoning a driver for the contraband in his trailer is like imprisoning the postman for the letter-bomb he delivered”
DAFMAD:
I would of thought naming and shaming the places that have sent these loads out from would be a good start.
Hi DAFMAD, it’s not as straightforward as that I’m afraid. The company might not have any knowledge of what’s going on. What happens if Mr Forky has been bribed, without his boss’ knowledge?? Sometimes, the consignors are just as unwittingly used as we might be. The people who move this kind of stuff around are nothing if not very clever. They often follow a truck for many miles, just waiting for their opportunity.
It has been known for “stuff” to have been put on a truck before crossing a border, then removed afterwards without the driver even being aware of anything being amiss. The car that’s carrying the “stuff” can then be searched without any possibility of capture. Just imagine the scene, if the police decide to do a stop-check not far inside the neighbouring country… 
Would the driver’s protests of innocence make any difference?? TBH, planted “stuff” on my vehicle was always at the back of my mind when I was running over the water.
Hello Dave, you have some valid points, but, I do still feel things need to start somewhere. I still say name and shame and get the ball rolling, as it is, it seems nothing is done. It also seems that a lot of those dodgy loads come from places in the Barcelona vicinity, but no-one says who or where. Wouldn’t you rather know who or where to steer well clear of ?
If its the forky that been bribed then still avoid, let the company find who’s responsible afterwards.
I’ll bet the French know
It’s something all of us have concerns over but to some degree theres not a lot you can do. Unless you stand at the back of the trailer and open every box 
. Let’s face it most, if not all of us, would be asleep on the bay at the groupage places on friday afternoon waiting for stuff whilst the trailer was loaded bit by bit over many hours Sometimes you just get “that feeling” about certain places and loads but many times it is probably nothing.
All you can really do is cover yourself as best you can i.e. Make sure you write on all the CMRs something like “quality and quantity of goods unchecked and loaded without driver present”. Make sure that the TIR cord is in good condition and looped through everywhere, so it would be impossible to gain access to the load after sealing. Make sure that the seal numbers are on all paperwork and make them seal it and sign the CMRs as such (a few pics taken on a phone or digi camera would help). Keep your tachos straight as they tell a valuble story, possibly proving you made no unscheduled stops and that any collections are clearly shown together with a provable timeline. Also keep any receipts even for a quick coffee as these could also help.
None of this really covers you but may just may help you if the inevitable happens 
montana man:
Make sure you write on all the CMRs something like “quality and quantity of goods unchecked and loaded without driver present”
To make it even more ‘official’ You can mark in box 18 of the CMR - Reservation No. 5(a). This translates as - 5. Impossible to check because: (a) loading effected by the sender - and is an officially recognised reservation. There is a whole list of various reservation numbers you can add to box 18.
As you say, every little thing you can do may help should the worst happen.
Coffeeholic:
montana man:
Make sure you write on all the CMRs something like “quality and quantity of goods unchecked and loaded without driver present”To make it even more ‘official’ You can mark in box 18 of the CMR - Reservation No. 5(a). This translates as - 5. Impossible to check because: (a) loading effected by the sender - and is an officially recognised reservation. There is a whole list of various reservation numbers you can add to box 18.
As you say, every little thing you can do may help should the worst happen.
Thats the phrase I was trying to think of Coffee cheers 
I just used to write and sign that whole lot on the CMR 
I found that the Duanes etc were well aware of its meaning and that after seeing that I had taken the time to do this they did not look so closely for excuses to boost the xmas club fund 
montana man:
I found that the Duanes etc were well aware of its meaning and that after seeing that I had taken the time to do this they did not look so closely for excuses to boost the xmas club fund
That’s my experience as well. Make it look like you knew what you were doing and they tended not to dig too deep. For that reason I used to keep my charts in the tacho envelopes with all the details filled in on the front, dates, serial numbers, driving time, other work etc. On more than one occasion I’ve handed them over like that and they’ve handed them back without even looking at the charts. 
DAFMAD:
Hello Dave, you have some valid points, but, I do still feel things need to start somewhere. I still say name and shame and get the ball rolling, as it is, it seems nothing is done. It also seems that a lot of those dodgy loads come from places in the Barcelona vicinity, but no-one says who or where. Wouldn’t you rather know who or where to steer well clear of ?
If its the forky that been bribed then still avoid, let the company find who’s responsible afterwards.
I’ll bet the French know
They’re all fair points DAFMAD. I’d agree with you about Barcelona too. Us old hands will all have stories to tell about it. I still feel that there are far too many opportunities for skullduggery in the transport chain though. Groupage, by its very nature, would be very difficult to check unless all forwarders were compelled to have airport type x-ray machines, but then some freight is physically too big to check.
Following Coffeeholic and Montana Man’s points about clausing the CMR, I was told to write “Shipper’s load, stow and count” or “said by the shipper to contain.” IIRC, the idea behind that was to cover for shortages rather than “extras” 
where i used to work, we used to collect groupage for onward delivery in the uk which had come into a groupage depot in essex. one friday one of our subbies went to stoke on trent with a few pallets of cd cases, within 2 minutes of arriving, the place was surrounded by police. he was arrested and taken away despite the fact that he had only collected the goods from our yard and he didnt even hold a passport!! 24 hours later he was released and told to find his own way home (to his heavily pregnant wife), he wasnt allowed back to the truck, it was still impounded. the police i guess were watching it and hoping to catch the dealers at the end of the line
if they had arrested him for transporting it, surely the guy who collected it from the groupage depot and our forkift drivers for handling it too? sadly naming and shaming wouldnt work as innocent companies get tarnished with a bad name.
im lucky in that i always load my trailer in my job, but i dont get to look in every box if its flight cases im delivering, but it doenst really cross my mind, im more concerned about immigrants getting in
More drivers than you would believe have unknowingly carried drugs from one country to another.
It has been the common practice for many years for the big time drugs barons to transport ehir ‘goods’ via truckers travelling across country.
The usual scenario is to wait in the truck parks while the drives get to sleep. Creep around various trucks planting quantities of drugs in suitable places on as many trucks as they can.
Then they simply follow the drivers across the borders untill they get to where they want to be - wait once more until the drivers are sleeping and remove their smuggled haul and take them to wherever.
This way the drug runners themselves take no rist whatsoever - it is the driver that is banged up if caught.
Another practice used to be to plant half a dozen trucks and to make sure they got the majority through the drug runners used to call ahead to the border guards and inform then that truck numberXXX whatever was carrying contraband.
Of course the border guards would leap onto that particular truck, find a stash of drugs and be so busy in doing so that the other dozen trucks would sail through without a query. Usually carrying a much larger amount each than the hapless driver who had been used as the fall guy.
This is exactly what happened to a friend of mine while crossing into Bulgaria some years ago. He served nearly 5 years in a Bulgarian nick before being allowed back to the UK - but still classed as guilty.
When travelling abroad ALWAYS check your truck with a fine tooth comb. It could so easily happen to you.
euromat:
i dont get to look in every box if its flight cases im delivering, but it doenst really cross my mind
it’d never happen in rock n roll transport would it 
think it’d cross mine mate
we had a driver back in the early 90s who used OTHER drivers’ demount legs to stash his weed (not commercial amounts but enough, more than personal use anyway) coming back into UK - until we found out about it, disgusting trick
totally unrelated of course, anyone know a driver called garry digby from essex?
euromat:
where i used to work, we used to collect groupage for onward delivery in the uk which had come into a groupage depot in essex. one friday one of our subbies went to stoke on trent with a few pallets of cd cases, within 2 minutes of arriving, the place was surrounded by police. he was arrested and taken away despite the fact that he had only collected the goods from our yard and he didnt even hold a passport!! 24 hours later he was released and told to find his own way home (to his heavily pregnant wife), he wasnt allowed back to the truck, it was still impounded. the police i guess were watching it and hoping to catch the dealers at the end of the lineif they had arrested him for transporting it, surely the guy who collected it from the groupage depot and our forkift drivers for handling it too? sadly naming and shaming wouldnt work as innocent companies get tarnished with a bad name.
The case you were on about in Stoke was:
The police were there for an unrelated reason and they train Police dogs near where it happened and they came across for a chat,the trailer pulled up,the dog went mad,the handcuffs went on.
The owner of the company concerned is now providing the Royal Mail with mailbag repair solutions.
Ben9:
The case you were on about in Stoke was:The police were there for an unrelated reason and they train Police dogs near where it happened and they came across for a chat,the trailer pulled up,the dog went mad,the handcuffs went on.
The owner of the company concerned is now providing the Royal Mail with mailbag repair solutions.
think this must be a different one cos the owner is still trading with a few trucks (the driver has since left though)
jj72:
euromat:
i dont get to look in every box if its flight cases im delivering, but it doenst really cross my mindit’d never happen in rock n roll transport would it
im sure it does go on, but there is no way i can check everything in my truck, so rather than worrying myself to death i dont think about it. if the load is set carts its a lot easier as everything is visible and can be checked (i would worry much more if i was a bus driver to be honest)
Coffeeholic:
montana man:
Make sure you write on all the CMRs something like “quality and quantity of goods unchecked and loaded without driver present”To make it even more ‘official’ You can mark in box 18 of the CMR - Reservation No. 5(a). This translates as - 5. Impossible to check because: (a) loading effected by the sender - and is an officially recognised reservation. There is a whole list of various reservation numbers you can add to box 18.
As you say, every little thing you can do may help should the worst happen.
While this may help in certain circumstances it will NOT help in France should any kind of drugs be discovered in the load and/or vehicle
DAFMAD:
Hello Dave, you have some valid points, but, I do still feel things need to start somewhere. I still say name and shame and get the ball rolling, as it is, it seems nothing is done. It also seems that a lot of those dodgy loads come from places in the Barcelona vicinity, but no-one says who or where. Wouldn’t you rather know who or where to steer well clear of ?
If its the forky that been bribed then still avoid, let the company find who’s responsible afterwards.
I’ll bet the French know
Several drivers in Perpignan prison have one thing in common… they all loaded for or at Spain Tir in Brcelona
Vascoingles:
Several drivers in Perpignan prison have one thing in common… they all loaded for or at Spain Tir in Brcelona
could be law of averages of course - when we pulled for them 80s they loaded 40% more groupage for the UK than their nearest rivals, around 50% of the market i’d hazard a guess (the 40% is a fact though)
in my line of work its a tough one , how far do you go in checking the load , i get a lot of attention from customs in all countries , it is allways at the back of my mind . i have a check sheet for each vehicle which i fill out but i dont do a full strip out of each car . and what about the stolen ones that we allready know have been involved in drug running ? a sniffer dogs dream .
but its not just drugs , i loaded a car full of booze from france once , shipped back to pompey and sent round to the scanner . anything to declare they say . oh yes that car there is full of drink . i said to one of them what would happen now , all of this is the vehicle owners , not mine … he said … and i quote … it depends which officer is on duty as to what happens that doesnt fill me with confidence . i have also had a few nervous moments where i have loaded vehicles with no keys and customs in france have wanted to know why and what am i hiding in the boot that we cant open and we will open that boot by force . thankfully they have allways been empty but its a tense wait while they do it .