Just gone back on the road after an absence of about a decade and I find the M1 / 25 absolutely full of ‘em, especially at night. I’ve often stopped at Rothersthorpe and on occasion Toddington of an evening to find I’m the only British registered truck on the park. Some of them I can only hazzard a guess at from where they’ve come from, and in the case of a battered low roof double manned DAF 85 I saw screwing its loaded 45ft tilt round on Rothersthorpes’ postage stamp truck park, how on earth they’ve managed to get here.
I know of course how our government permits them to work here and ties one hand behind our back to prevent us doing a thing about it but I have also been struck by the irony that whilst we are on the receiving end of a Health & Safety obsessed culture with hi vis jackets, hats, glasses etc. they seem to operate on an entirely different level involving tracksuit bottoms, training shoes and brown cardigans amongst other items that I wouldn’t be allowed through my firms gate in! Ergo, whilst everyone tries so hard to raise such standards they are at the same time been driven backwards by the foreign legion.
Some of those who believe in conspiracy theories might think that the Government deliberately won’t let UK hauliers have a level playing field, because after the fuel strike they won’t plenty of foreign hauliers to make sure we can’t hold the country to ransom. But that can’t be the real reason can it??
Conspiracy? Tony Blair and his Government? Perish the thought! you all know as well as I know that Tony would never stoop so low as to entertain a conspiracy
Good point Limey!
Ask yourself how much it costs to kit a driver out in protective gear.
1, Steel toe cap boots.
2, Hi Vis coat.
3, Hard hat.
4, Gloves.
The answer is a lot of money.
Do the R.D.C’s refuse to tip a driver who is not wearing any of the above?
I’d hate to see the insurance form for a driver hurt not wearing any of the above.
See my posting “WIILI BETZ DESIGNER GEAR”
Look after yourself and use any Protective equipment provided.
believe it or not it could have been coal ive known english trucks before now backload the stuff from poland and during the summer you can see english spud bulkers on the shuttle running out empty to bring spuds back from europe.there is a lot more forign motors on our roads but think about it thanks to govenments past and present what does this country manufacture anymore the only thing i disagree with is the fact the police and vosa seem powerless to do anything about the ones that run bent .the reason i think the easton european drivers do it is because the authoroties in there own country dont give a monkeys.they just get parked up for 24 or 36 hours and then theyre off again.
Mr. Betz seems to have sprung up in my absence, possibly at the expense of Hungarocamion whose green machines are a rare sighting these days, and as such I am a little intrigued by his operation.
I have read that he is under serious investigation by the German authorities for tax evasion and bribery relating to the former Eastern Bloc countries and even that he is rumoured to have been knee-capped! Anyone have any further information on this nemesis of the British haulage industry.
He was indeed shot a few years ago, I have a German friend from the Stuttgart area and her father was one of the policemen who caught the guy who did the shooting. Last I heard he was in Bruchsal jail and as far as I remember he was Romanian.
Mr Betz recovered and lives in a small town a little south of Stuttgart.
Coffeeholic:
He was indeed shot a few years ago, I have a German friend from the Stuttgart area and her father was one of the policemen who caught the guy who did the shooting.
Mr Betz recovered and lives in a small town a little south of Stuttgart.
That must of been one really annoyed driver. (probally been told he was being weekended on a British MSA )
“Mr. Betz seems to have sprung up in my absence, possibly at the expense of Hungarocamion whose green machines are a rare sighting these days, and as such I am a little intrigued by his operation.”
Limey,
There’s still plenty of Hungarocamions around, they’re just not green anymore on the most part. My dad was coming back from Switzerland a week or two ago and parked in Ashford Truckstop for the weekend and the place was full to the brim with nothing but Hungarocamions with the Betz legion being confined to the near by industrial estate. Incedentally dont Hungarocamion now belong to Betz, he just had to keep the Hungarian name so the said country didn’t suffer a loss of national pride.
Also with relivence to this post, my dad was in Flixborough near Scunthorpe this week and was talking to an Estonian driver in an Estonian truck who only run between England and Italy with the occasional trip home. I wonder who did this England - Italy work before his company undercut them? It doesn’t take three guesses and I certainly dont think its an isolated incedent.
I’m seriously worried that in under a years time when I’m old enough to take my C and C+E that I’ll even have a job to go to. I’ve already lost out to Poles in the past when I worked at sea on British and German merchant ships, I dont want to see it happen again. The average British merchant ship is now made up of a 100% Polish or Filipino crew, how long before we go the same way as our seamen?
Is this a sign of the times?
Was playing my gentle afternoon session of petanque the other day when an Irish truck appeared, obviously lost. Walked across the road to help only to find that the driver was Polish. Spoke good English though.
I’m wondering how long it will take for you to witness Truckers in France taking measures to protect their future. I wonder if Norbert or any of the other big boys there have any Poles or plan on getting any? if not its probably because they know what will happen. Britain is a prime destination for Poles and any other cheap labour because we on the most part seem to have an imbedded mentality of “well what can we do about it?” complacency which garuntees that we always come last. I’d love more than anything else to be proven wrong on what I just said and be able to get a job in a years time and for all of you to still have yours but do any of you on here believe that the vast majority of hauliers on this country given the choice between you and a Pole will have any loyalty to you ar all? The small amount that do will eventually be undercut by those that dont.
My last job at sea was with a British company and the only reason I was there was because the Romanian cook was taken ill and the Filipino that was sent to replace him missed his flight to London and they were desperate for a man so they could leave port otherwise pay sky high port dues. The said company 10 or 12 years ago had full British crews on all its 20 odd ships now there isn’t a single British seaman in the fleet, only half the ships have a British first officer and alot of the ships even have Ukrainian captains. About two years ago before I worked for this company I phoned them looking for a job, only to be told by their MD “Its now company polocy only to employ Filipino seamen and Eastern European officers, and we dont envisage our exisiting British seamen to be with us much longer” and he was right. Their crewing office is not based in Britain, oh no, its based in Rotterdam and it deals only with seamen from the Philipines and Eastern Europe, mainly the Ukraine, Romania and Croatia. Is the same going to happen to the Truck drivers of Western Europe? The next few months may be interesting as things start to unfold.
I believe it is a sign of the times for sure. I dont have a thing against anybody based on race. But, I reckon we are being sold down the river regarding europe, and Im going to vote (for the first time since 1979) in the EU elections for the UK Independance Party.
All the leaders, Labour & Tory since McMillan have lied about the EU, released govt papers prove it beyond doubt, and its a looming superstate where you’ll do as youre bleeding well told! UKIP pledge to get us out of the EU saving about £20 billion a year, and of course if they win and pull us out, nobodys going to have that great eastern European pool of labour to play games with either. They did the fishermen good style here as a pressie to the EU, dont think they wont do any of us the same way.
These drivers have to make a living too. I have no objection to them working over here, but in such numbers? We are certainly being sold down the river.
It has been calculated by those in the know that we’d gain as much from being in NAFTA as we do from Europe. (NAFTA being the North American Free Trade Association)
whilst i think politics is a dodgy subject to get onto, i will also be voting for the uk independence party. the common markets fine, why do we have to have all the other nonsense? i know loads of drivers who lost there jobs to cheaper labour from overseas, nothing at all against estonians, most of them have seen more of the world than i but we must start protecting our industry. i`ve only been doing it for around 10 years but its changed drastically in that short timespan.
Ok I declare an interest I live on the spanish border but boy if you think that the uk as a few oversea`s trucks think again there are more eastern european trucks parked up at la junquera than spanish trucks ukip would be for me but cant vote from over here,foot in both camps.
