How is it the whole foreign flip flop brigade

[newmercman]

nightline:

newmercman:

nightline:

Boo9729:
…all seem to know each other, park how they feel in msa’s & then every flip flop in a car comes to see them & then start either cooking, wheeler dealing out the car or all crawl around each others trailers !!! Funny bunch.

What you don’t see is all the stuff there giving them to put in the truck to bring back to there country, like stuff they don’t own if you know what I mean. There are big markets over there for the likes of mobile phones and stuff.

Oh yes definitely, because before the Eastern Europeans arrived nobody ever stole anything in Great Britain did they

If you read the thread he was talking about the bags, where the hell did you get from me that there is no robbers in the UK, talk about a dumb ■■■.

Look up sacarsm in the dictionary

Read the site rules too while you’re at it, abusing members is not allowed and name calling counts as abuse

So play nicely, or…

[nightline]

newmercman:

nightline:
You might not know this but mobile phone theft is huge in the UK now, what with all these I phones and new high tech stuff, they fly over from other countries for the weekend do all there thieving in night clubs and on the street at night and fly back after two days, big money in it. They can’t bring the phones back on the plane in bulk, so tell me how they get them back (in the trucks that’s how)
It happens in a lot of different countries.

So because a foreign driver is being handed a bag, it obviously contains stolen goods?

The drivers are just trying to earn a living like the rest of us ffs!

I don’t doubt that a few of them are scallies, but a generalisation that all of them are thieves is like saying that all Brit lorry drivers are xenophobic neanderthals, sure, some of them are, but not every one of them.

The only one here that’s doing what your saying is yourself if you read the post I said everywhere

[nightline]

newmercman:

nightline:

newmercman:

nightline:

Boo9729:
…all seem to know each other, park how they feel in msa’s & then every flip flop in a car comes to see them & then start either cooking, wheeler dealing out the car or all crawl around each others trailers !!! Funny bunch.

What you don’t see is all the stuff there giving them to put in the truck to bring back to there country, like stuff they don’t own if you know what I mean. There are big markets over there for the likes of mobile phones and stuff.

Oh yes definitely, because before the Eastern Europeans arrived nobody ever stole anything in Great Britain did they

If you read the thread he was talking about the bags, where the hell did you get from me that there is no robbers in the UK, talk about a dumb ■■■.

Look up sacarsm in the dictionary

Read the site rules too while you’re at it, abusing members is not allowed and name calling counts as abuse

So play nicely, or…

No what you should do is read what other people posts before you reply to them and make threats’

[scanner]

maga:

Twoninety88:

Boo9729:
So all of you that comment on the comradeship etc & good old days…why did you stop doing it & the ‘flip floppers’ carried on ■■

I wasnt the drivers who stopped, but the companies when they found they could not compete any more. Leaving Italy on a Friday night, and travelling home over Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, you would be in the massed company of many varied British and Southern Irish hauliers. The Gendarmerie usually out in force at what seemed like every peage.

Now, apparently you dont see many according to a mate who still does the job.

Just been speaking to my grandad about this as he did Europe all his life. He reckons the English drivers were their own worst enemy, he used to be able to ring the boss from a pay phone and find out where one of the others trucks were and they’d have a drink and meal etc.

That was until drivers were ringing up and moaning how come so and so gets all the spain runs or something thing like that, so big boss thought fine I won’t tell them anything anymore. From that day he could never meet up with a mate or whatever because the boss refused to tell them!

Your grandad was absolutely right.

[newmercman]

nightline:

newmercman:

nightline:

newmercman:

nightline:

Boo9729:
…all seem to know each other, park how they feel in msa’s & then every flip flop in a car comes to see them & then start either cooking, wheeler dealing out the car or all crawl around each others trailers !!! Funny bunch.

What you don’t see is all the stuff there giving them to put in the truck to bring back to there country, like stuff they don’t own if you know what I mean. There are big markets over there for the likes of mobile phones and stuff.

Oh yes definitely, because before the Eastern Europeans arrived nobody ever stole anything in Great Britain did they

If you read the thread he was talking about the bags, where the hell did you get from me that there is no robbers in the UK, talk about a dumb ■■■.

Look up sacarsm in the dictionary

Read the site rules too while you’re at it, abusing members is not allowed and name calling counts as abuse

So play nicely, or…

No what you should do is read what other people posts before you reply to them and make threats’

You suggested that the stuff in the bags they were receiving was stolen property “if you know what I mean”

I’ve highlighted the pertinent bits in red for you, to avoid any further misunderstanding on your part. HTH

[wheel_nut]

newmercman:
So the boss man completely turns this thread around. Nice move…

I agree with him and everyone who’s agreed too. I spent a good few years over the water and it was, as said, the way we did it, but it was also the way it was done here too.

Another lorry parked in the same place as you, or tipping/loading in the same place and the driver was your new mate, see the same lorry on the same road and after a week or so you’d wave to each other.

You also knew who was heavy by the firm they were driving for and you’d keep out of their way at the bottom of an uphill stretch so they could get a run at it.

Then there was the sharing of knowledge (& the story telling) when you got a couple of drivers together.

We stopped doing it, the ‘flip flops’ carried on doing it and while we go to the dogs, they go from strength to strength, coincidence or not…

Much the same from me, a truck driven by a brit was either something to look for or something to avoid. Some stopping places had a reputation that preceded them, many were just a great meeting place. I have spent weeks and months away and ended up with the same drivers at Meer or Geiselwind, they became your mates, even if you were only on first name terms.

In Ludwigshafen we used to get up on Sunday morning to the Sunday papers that a couple of expats used to bring round. Then it was off to the pub with them for lunch. I even spent new year with one of these families in Germany

Cheers John and Mick

[orys]

bald bloke:
Yeah i was at Thurrock MSA a few weeks ago one afternoon and there was a few of the flip flop lot there all chatting and then a GB registered car turned up 2 lads got out the car with some stuff in Aldi bags gave them to the flip flopppers they had a quick ■■■ and the car shot off i wonder what that was all about.

There is plenty of companies that ship parcels to Poland. Ususally they have few vans here to collect/deliver stuff and one van trunking to Poland. Sometimes they have a truck for trunking if they are big, or there is for example one truck and trailer that goes up via M40 / M6 to Aberdeen and comes back via Edinburgh A1 and so on, collecting non-urgent palletized “trunks” from smaller companies. Hell of paperwork is that job, I really admire this guy for that he is able to deal with all that.

Sometimes, where there is just parcel or two, they just pass it over with the truckers.

Also some people are using private contact to send their stuff to and from Poland. I myself on few occasions have sent a bottle or two of Whisky, as it’s cheaper here than in Poland, with the trucker who was friend of friend of friend…

Also, as someone rightly said, there is lot of cheap ■■■■ coming from Poland. Even non-smokers buy maximum amount and then sell it here. It’s not only a Polish thing, half of our vans come back from the continent with max amount of ■■■■ and booze.

I doubt in that theory of stolen mobile phones, such things are too easy to track, and believe or not, but there is plenty of mobile phones to be stolen in Poland as well… Actually due to policy of mobile network that are killing each other in price fights, you can have a good phone on contract much cheaper than here, my Polish friends usually have more fancy phones than my Scottish friends if they are on contract. As for assuming that “it has to be stolen because they are Eastern European” newmercman covered that topic well.

There can be another thing: you can have a good bargain on e-bay but many sellers don’t send stuff to Poland for some reason, or the costs are too high. Usually people in Poland then just ask someone they know if they can use their address and then the stuff is sent to them, and then it’s either passed by someone or the person sends it cheaper with one of the Polish parcel companies. I had car parts, mobile phones, kindle and photographic equipment going through my flat on some occasions. On two of them I posted it with the parcel company, on two of them I delivered the stuff myself when I was going to Poland for holidays and on one occasion I was asked to pass it to some truck driver who was some kind of uncle of the guy’s in question’s neighbour.

toby1234abc:
Good post this.I rang the police to say a Polish truck was parked up for over two weeks.And the cab curtains were half over each time i saw the truck.Thinking the driver had died or taken ill.Cops rang the firm in Poland and the truck had broken down and the driver was stsying with the Polish community in the town while waiting for psrts or a mechanic to come over so maybe the foreign drivers in the Uk have family and friends in the Uk.

With well over milion of Poles here, it’s very likely. I myself have places to stay in Shepperds Bush, near Heathrow, in Cabridge, in Mansfield, in Nantwhich and in Warwick and two in Bristol. And that’s just the people I know I can call any time and tell them “I am going to couchsurf with you today if you are home”. I have some less close friends in plenty other places

ashbyspannerman:
Parked at Sunbury monday night one Polish truck there, later 2 more turn up, later still an Audi estate turns up with envelopes and what looked like takeaways for all three. Suppose i should have PM’d Orys for instructions to order something for myself!

I would rather expect that you would need CB with european channels, put it on #29 and speak Polish This is how they get together for the party… Or they use facebook, I am myself a member of the group on facebook that contains something about 700 of bloody Polish van drivers that are stealing my job They are posts of “I am going to be parked overnight at X, anyone close?” every night.

toby1234abc:
With Orys on the case the post will turn in to a twenty pager.

Depends how many more questions you have and if I know answers to them

[rob_k]

switchlogic:

Sidevalve:
It’s probably something that’s largely died out amongst “professional” British truckers; sticking with your mates and helping them out.

Spot on. They’ve got it right and we’ve got it wrong in this respect in my opinion.

“Spot on” says Mr. Anti-social here, who has on a numerous occasions in the past stated here that he won’t speak to any other truckers when out and about if he can avoid it.

I couldn’t let that one slip by unnoticed.

[newmercman]

Rob K:

switchlogic:

Sidevalve:
It’s probably something that’s largely died out amongst “professional” British truckers; sticking with your mates and helping them out.

Spot on. They’ve got it right and we’ve got it wrong in this respect in my opinion.

“Spot on” says Mr. Anti-social here, who has on a numerous occasions in the past stated here that he won’t speak to any other truckers when out and about if he can avoid it.

I couldn’t let that one slip by unnoticed.

Reading some of the posts on here, you can’t blame him:grin:

[legend_scania]

Some flop flips are very helpful I had a problem with my truck in the Service and one polish bloke come over to see if I needed a hand even offered me a beer.

So they all aren’t as bad as people think there doing the same job as we are to earn a living to pay for the roof and food for there family from where ever there from…

I don’t have a problem with them to be honest