Got back to our yard yesterday to find a Lithuanian truck loading up our goods for delivery to Spain. Is this legal as I thought any foreign truck can only do a couple of non-contracted jobs within our UK borders and then leave either empty or with a backload for its own country.
And just out of curiosity. What would a UK haulier charge for a similar trip eg Manchester-Barcelona .Full load weighing under 20 tns ?
What would the Lithuanian charge ■■
perfectly legal
any EU vehicle can deliver from any EU country to any other EU country.
As regards rates the last time i organized a load to spain was 1998 rate then was about 600 - 800 quid dont think its much different now but i may be completely wrong if i am i apologize 
I used to do the same thing when I worked for Westermann, they call it tramping, home to Portugal, then to Germany, then Spain etc etc for about 3 weeks, then load for home. As for rates, back loads usually pay less than loads going from home so he would do it at a lower rate.
We used to do loads from Barcelona to Manchester for £650 unless we managed to get one from Willi Betz who unbelievably payed more than any other company (at the time) then we got £950. both rates were ferry’s paid. yet going down was £950 minimum.
I wouldn’t sent a transit for that money!
Tolls and derv would cost £600 to Barca without wages etc.
A company i used to work for had english and dutch regd trucks…unlucky for me i had an english regd truck at the start and got moved to a dutch redg truck after a few months…as it was doing european it didnt make a lot of difference…load here ship out…but became cabbotage after getting tipped here in uk then loading for some place up north and then getting told…“make sure you hide the ■■■■ cmr’s if you get pulled by vosa”…
From the RHA manual says
““Cabotage” the collection and delivery of goods within a country other than that in which the haulier is licensed - used to be illegal. That changed with the advent of the Single European Market and there was an allocation system of cabotage permits. However, this system was swept away as of the beginning of July 1998.
Hauliers now have freedom to collect and deliver loads wherever they wish throughout the original 15 Member States of the European Union, but only on a temporary basis. Although there is EU standard, many member staes have specific variations.
Withthe enlargement of the EU on 1 May 2004, Cyprus, Malta and Slovenia from the new accession staes were allowed by the Dft to carry out cabotage in the UK. The other accession states (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary,Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Slovakia) will be allowed to carry out cabotage operations in the uk from 1 May 2009, and Bulgaria and Romania from 2012.”
jimti:
I used to do the same thing when I worked for Westermann, they call it tramping, home to Portugal, then to Germany, then Spain etc etc for about 3 weeks, then load for home. As for rates, back loads usually pay less than loads going from home so he would do it at a lower rate.
We used to do loads from Barcelona to Manchester for £650 unless we managed to get one from Willi Betz who unbelievably payed more than any other company (at the time) then we got £950. both rates were ferry’s paid. yet going down was £950 minimum.
I used to charge £650 for a day return journey to London (mad Geordie football fans) from Newcastle in a VW Caravelle.
bowserman:
I:
I used to do the same thing when I worked for Westermann, they call it tramping, home to Portugal, then to Germany, then Spain etc etc for about 3 weeks, then load for home. As for rates, back loads usually pay less than loads going from home so he would do it at a lower rate.
We used to do loads from Barcelona to Manchester for £650 unless we managed to get one from Willi Betz who unbelievably payed more than any other company (at the time) then we got £950. both rates were ferry’s paid. yet going down was £950 minimum.I used to charge £650 for a day return journey to London (mad Geordie football fans) from Newcastle in a VW Caravelle.
Those rates were about 12 years ago, but they aren’t much better now,
LKW wanted us to do a load of groupage from Barcelona last summer for £500 
my boss told them he would rather send the truck home empty
There is so much competition in Europe now that back loads are nearly worthless. 
I wasn’t bragging, just putting things in perspective. I would have used about £100 worth of diesel to do that.
Then again, don’t know what the diesel cost would be back to Barcelona and I suppose if it is a back load then it goes towards the cost of getting the truck back.