Finally after all these years

[thebear]

I have lost one of my ‘records’.
Until now I have always been proud of the fact that I have never been robbed, gassed, had any problems with immigrants etc etc.

My Boss still thinks I had magic mushrooms for breakfast!! This story as it unfolded became more and more incredible and impossible to believe!!

I’ll try to keep it short but here goes.

Last Wednesday night after loading in Rotterdam, I decided to use up my last hour. Whoosh down to Meer truckstop where I intended refuelling as I was getting very low (tanks hold 1,500 litres). By the time I got there (very late and off no interest to VOSA) it was raining so, thankfully as it turned out, I decided to refuel in the morning.
Now I was covering someones ■■■ collecting this load and it was due for delivery in the Midlands Thursday morning but that wasn’t going to happen but I decided to try and make it before they closed at 6pm. I parked up and straight to sleep, alarm set for 0645 english.
I got up at 645 and at 0650 staggered in for much needed coffee etc. I had coffee, cleaned my teeth swilled my face and strolled back out to the truck. Pressed my little key fob and opened the door and climbed in. Checked around the cab, saw nothing loose or amiss and started the engine. This was 0715. After 5 minutes, I put Big Momma into gear and pulled out and drove the 600 yards to the AS24 station up the top of the road. There were 2 others in there and I swung onto one of the vacant pumps. I took the fuel card wallet from the ashtray where it has lived for 5 years (and where I believe 95% of SSC DAF drivers keep their cards). I put the card in the reader, entered the pin and got the message ‘Incorrect Pin’. Looking at the card, I noticed it was the AS24 Eurotraffic card …oops, I thought. So I put the normal AS24 card in and entered the pin again. Again it said ‘Incorrect Pin’. Now I am confused■■? I looked at the cards and double checked my Pins. Then something hit me right between the eyes!!! These were NOT my cards!!! On the card was the companies name and it certainly never said Alan Knight Transport BV as mine did. It said ‘Ghestem Littoral, Loon Plage’!!! BUT they were in MY card wallet
What the ■■■■ has happened here? went through my brain. Now I am panicking… where the hell are my cards? I thought back to when I had last used them and realised I had used the Eurotraffic the night before at Wielerswist to get my MAUT but there had been only myself in the garage. I got more and more confused. I then bit the bullet and rang the UK office and got told to ring the Dutch one. After being accused of being drunk or on drugs, I got the phone number of the French firm off him. I rang the firm and spoke to their Transport Manager who came out with the classic ‘C’est impossible. The card has been stolen, you cannot have it’. Then as I was heading back past Loon Plage, I made a decision and told the French guy I would call in. I rang the UK again and got told to get to Veurne asap as two of our guys were on their way there and I could refuel using their cards. Needless to say, I was getting a fair amount of abuse including being accused of selling the ■■■■■■■ cards.
So, in utter despair, I headed for Veurne. There, I stuck 1350 litres in thanx to the other two guys. Then I headed for Loon Plage. Upon reaching here, everything started falling into place!!
As I pulled up outside, their Manager came out and met me, shaking my hand, offering me coffee etc. I went to lock the doors and discovered the battery in my key fob had died. So I went to use the key … oh dear, that isn’t an option … the lock has been done which I discovered when I put my key in and the lock came back out with the key.
I went into the offices and sat down with the Manager who related THEIR story to me. On the Tuesday evening, he had had 5 lorries parked up near Zwolle in Northern Holland. Whilst the drivers were in having showers and meals ALL five trucks were broken into and all their fuel cards and GPS sat navs were stolen. The set of cards I had were one of the stolen sets!!! As we spoke it became more apparent what had happened!!
Basically, as I had left the cab, a fellow ‘driver’ had watched me walk away, gone over to my cab, broke in, gone straight to the ashtray and SWAPPED my cards for the French ones. But no one could understand why he had not touched anything else. Three phones were on the top, a laptop and other valuables. Then it hit me … if he had touched anything else, I would have noticed straight away and then searched through the cab calling the Police at the same time. He’d only get to use the cards the once, if that. Purely by leaving everything else alone, he obviously hoped for more ‘breathing space’. IF I had refuelled the night before, I would not have gone near the cards until at least next weekend when refuelling again (I can do almost 4,000 kms on 1,500 litres). He would have had a field day or week as the case may be. By leaving everything exactly how I had left it including the wallet sat in the ashtray, he hoped to earn something a bit more than his wages this week.
Yes, by the way, the pin No’s were in the wallet too so that WAS my mistake. OK, I have been robbed and turned over for the first time ever but what galls me is this … my cards were stopped at 0745. The ■■■■■■■ had drawn 750 litres at Meer at 0720 so was possibly still in there when I went in there!! Now the next time he went to use them, they would be worthless to him so what is he going to do?? He will do the same again and break into another drivers cab. It might be an O/D who can hardly afford to lose 750 litres (by Christ, we can’t). I hope the next time he does it he gets caught and gets a bloody good hiding cos that’s what I want to do to him!! I’d break every bone in his hands if I caught him!!
Naturally, the new set of cards have a new home and the pin No’s have been removed from the wallet but it was still a painful lesson to learn even after over 30 years on the road.
Beware out there, chaps!!

[mb14]

Very scary i parked up nr Zwolle last week,keep hearing bad things about parking in holland, i’ve had someone have ago at the locks lasr yearnr venlo.Shame as the people are great.i have so many different fuel cards i do keep the pins with them-that will have to change.

[harry_monk]

TheBear:
The [zb] had drawn 750 litres at Meer at 0720 so was possibly still in there when I went in there!! Now the next time he went to use them, they would be worthless to him so what is he going to do??

This should be on CCTV… sorry to hear about this though, seems to be a growing problem all over Europe, my ex-boss had almost exactly the same happen at La Jonquera.

[thebear]

Unfortunately, Harry, Meer isn’t on CCTV. We know that as it is not classed as secure by one of the companies we pull for.
It guts me as I love the Dutch people and think they are good fun and helpful when needed but this is happening more and more around their country and unfortunately, most of us know why.

[harry_monk]

TheBear:
Unfortunately, Harry, Meer isn’t on CCTV. We know that as it is not classed as secure by one of the companies we pull for.
It guts me as I love the Dutch people and think they are good fun and helpful when needed but this is happening more and more around their country and unfortunately, most of us know why.

I would bet the farm that it wasn’t a Dutch person who stole the cards. I don’t want to appear racist towards eastern Europeans so I won’t speculate on who I imagine might have stolen them.

[ben9]

One small thing to be grateful of is that they stop the fuel cards almost immediately.
A lot of fuel card companies try and make you responsible for losses within the next 48hrs.
Still a bit of a pooper though.

[the_pasty_man]

Sorry to hear about your mis-fortune at Meer, I use the place a lot & always thought it was fairly safe. After reading your post I’ll be taking alot more care. Was on a 24 break there the other w/end & noticed the managment checking all the E/ Eurpopean trucks to see if they’d used the restuarnt to eat, if not they were told to depart. Good job I thought as they use all the facilities but pay nothing & leave a load of crap behind. Now I’m wondering if this may be a result of the owners taking care of their business. I hope not as it’s a good place to stop but I agree with the managements decision to keep/kick the free-loaders out.

[gbpub]

The Pasty man:
Sorry to hear about your mis-fortune at Meer, I use the place a lot & always thought it was fairly safe. After reading your post I’ll be taking alot more care. Was on a 24 break there the other w/end & noticed the managment checking all the E/ Eurpopean trucks to see if they’d used the restuarnt to eat, if not they were told to depart. Good job I thought as they use all the facilities but pay nothing & leave a load of crap behind. Now I’m wondering if this may be a result of the owners taking care of their business. I hope not as it’s a good place to stop but I agree with the managements decision to keep/kick the free-loaders out.

Couldn’t agree more ThePastyMan, that’s one of the reasons I am in favour of charging to park and get a food voucher in return. The Eastern Europeans living out of Lidl/Aldi etc. yet using and abusing the facilities don’t contribute anything to any truckstop.

[bigvern1]

I know that no-one directly blamed E/Europeans. But has anyone noticed, that a lot of Mobile caravan dwellers travel through Europe too?
I have been confronted by Italian/Spanish/Romanian/ “Irish” all over Europe on the mooch for my derv.
Perhaps it was one of these groups at it?

I’m pretty sure, that they know all the ways to half-inch it by now!

[thetourist]

This is big problem these day’s that was rarely seen in the past, and i can only think of three possible reasons for this.

1. The price of fuel these day’s making the rewards worth the risk of discovery.
2. The influx of what can only be described as eastern influences (i know that all are not bad) into the international transport industry as many of these incidents seam to be other drivers.
3. In the old day’s there was a unwritten code and a driver would very rarely rob from another driver. (if you were robbed at all it was generally a professionally motivated local or a gipsy)

[chilistrucker]

bigvern1:
I know that no-one directly blamed E/Europeans. But has anyone noticed, that a lot of Mobile caravan dwellers travel through Europe too?
I have been confronted by Italian/Spanish/Romanian/ “Irish” all over Europe on the mooch for my derv.
Perhaps it was one of these groups at it?

I’m pretty sure, that they know all the ways to half-inch it by now!

i was in madrid the week before christmas, and a transit tipper on irish plates pulled up, the driver asked, “could i spare him some diesel?” thought i was in membury, not madrid.

don’t know if this helps, but i always stick my fuel card pin numbers in my mobile phone.

if my mobile gets stolen in the next 2 weeks, i’ll be tracing down first, the people who posted here.

[newmercman]

I packed up doing continental full time in the late 90s, it was just as the immigrant problem started at the channel ports, prior to that there was none of the problems you blokes seem to have now, even in Italy or Spain, parking in numbers almost guaranteed safety, the only people that tried to rob you were local ■■■■■■, now one of the biggest threats seems to come from fellow drivers, seeing as how most of your fellow drivers are Eastern Europeans it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out why things have gone downhill in a hurry

A lot of us moaned about the opening of the borders, saying that eliminating customs took the fun out of the job, but really the consequences are far more sinister, not only do the Eastern Europeans carve up the rates, they have turned the whole of Europe into the Wild West, maybe that’s a racist/xenophobic statement, but it also happens to be the truth

[billybigrig]

newmercman:
I packed up doing continental full time in the late 90s, it was just as the immigrant problem started at the channel ports, prior to that there was none of the problems you blokes seem to have now, even in Italy or Spain, parking in numbers almost guaranteed safety, the only people that tried to rob you were local ■■■■■■, now one of the biggest threats seems to come from fellow drivers, seeing as how most of your fellow drivers are Eastern Europeans it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out why things have gone downhill in a hurry

A lot of us moaned about the opening of the borders, saying that eliminating customs took the fun out of the job, but really the consequences are far more sinister, not only do the Eastern Europeans carve up the rates, they have turned the whole of Europe into the Wild West, maybe that’s a racist/xenophobic statement, but it also happens to be the truth

Now you’ve done it NMM

Best bolster the servers for another 18 page yawnsville post from Orys on how the East Europeans saved the world, found the WMDs and Lord Lucan then after lunch solved world hunger and global warming

[newmercman]

billybigrig:
Now you’ve done it NMM

Who me I never stir the pot

[thetourist]

newmercman:
I packed up doing continental full time in the late 90s, it was just as the immigrant problem started at the channel ports, prior to that there was none of the problems you blokes seem to have now, even in Italy or Spain, parking in numbers almost guaranteed safety, the only people that tried to rob you were local ■■■■■■, now one of the biggest threats seems to come from fellow drivers, seeing as how most of your fellow drivers are Eastern Europeans it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out why things have gone downhill in a hurry

A lot of us moaned about the opening of the borders, saying that eliminating customs took the fun out of the job, but really the consequences are far more sinister, not only do the Eastern Europeans carve up the rates, they have turned the whole of Europe into the Wild West, maybe that’s a racist/xenophobic statement, but it also happens to be the truth

If this was facebook i would double like.
The way i see it is that the whole transport industry died a little when we moved from A.B.C.& F. licences and were replaced by the “O” licence letting every man and his dog have a go

[simon]

chilistrucker:
if my mobile gets stolen in the next 2 weeks, i’ll be tracing down first, the people who posted here.

I’m not going to post here then.

(Oh [ZB], I just did)

[chilistrucker]

Simon:

chilistrucker:
if my mobile gets stolen in the next 2 weeks, i’ll be tracing down first, the people who posted here.

I’m not going to post here then.

(Oh [ZB], I just did)

[skids]

I never leave pin with cards, I wouldnt leave my bank pin with my bank card so why do it with the fuel cards? What I do is hide the pins on my mobile in fictitious (but genuine looking) phone numbers. Even by telling you this you would not know which numbers I use and even if you could tell the phone number you would not know which part of it is the pin.

[bald_bloke]

skids:
I never leave pin with cards, I wouldnt leave my bank pin with my bank card so why do it with the fuel cards? What I do is hide the pins on my mobile in fictitious (but genuine looking) phone numbers. Even by telling you this you would not know which numbers I use and even if you could tell the phone number you would not know which part of it is the pin.

In theory that’s a good idea as long you can remember what phone number it is and in what order, would be difficult for me after a fortnights holiday I know.

[kw]

Thankfully we only have one card,all the tolls are handled through a DKV box in the windscreen or the maut box for Germany.

It makes you laugh though,companies get scammed for hundreds of pounds through a stolen fuel card,but they don’t think of investing in extra security door locks or alarms.Both the locks on my Actros got damaged a couple of years ago when someone tried to break in,I was on holiday at the time and the driver who had my truck didn’t even know someone had tried to break in.

It’s a sad state of affairs that nowadays it’s more likely to be a fellow driver that robs you.