My name is Lee Sorrell. I am head of investigations at ITV’s flagship
current affairs series Tonight.
Rikki Chequer, an administrator for the Forum, has given me the okay to post this note.
The reason for contacting you all is that I am currently conducting some
research into the problems faced by lorry drivers with stowaways
attempting to board their lorries around the French and Belgian
channel ports.
I am aware that, among other things, lorry drivers have been
confronted with intimidation and threats of violence from those
attempting to get into the UK. In some instances, drivers have been
attacked.
I am also aware that drivers have been approached directly by criminals who are involved in organising immigrants to get across at service stations etc in and around the port areas.
I am also aware of the problems of drivers and operators facing fines
if found to have stowaways on board. A common complaint is that many
of these fines have been levelled unfairly.
To assist with my research, I would be grateful for any feedback from drivers who have experienced the type of problems detailed above or have a view on the current situation in the channel port areas.
I want to make sure that when I produce my report, that the views of lorry drivers are taken into account.
Those with something to say on the subject can either contact me through the Forum or by sending an e-mail to me at lee.sorrell@grandamedia.com. The information is for research purposes only and will be treated in strict confidence.
Thanks for taking the time to read this message and I look forward to hearing from some of you.
Regards
Lee Sorrell
mis-typed your email . should be @granadamedia.com
The Problem with Stowaways will never be solved until the French, Greek and Italian Governments etc are held accountable for the Situation.
Why the other Governments?
Well, Assylum is supposed to be sought in the first safe Country the seeker arrives in, in most cases this is Greece, however, the Greeks hold them for so many days then tell them they must be out of their country within say 7 days.
The French Government happily allow Illegal immigrants to congregate opposite Calaise Police Station at the Red Cross Cabin where they are fed and watered before being allowed to try and make their way to the UK unhindered by the French Police.
The French Police should be rounding up the illegals, finding out where they entered the EU and then sending them back by Bus and sending the bill to the Greek Government or Italians etc etc etc and letting them deport the illegals back to where they came from.
Although its a UK problem because of the benefits paid to these immigrants that attracts them, the whole of the EU should be held accountable, if the Belgians and Germans fail to stop the assylum seekers because they are just passing through their countries, it will inevitably end up with the British or French footing the bill.
Drivers are not allowed to remain with their vehicles on a Ferry, therefore once the vehicle has passed through the checkpoints at Calaise the Driver should not be responsible if illegals have boarded his truck during the Ferry Crossing. It’s simply a revenue for the government hitting truck drivers / owners for the failings of European Governments.
There were british X Ray machines on the french side but the french say it infringes the illegals human rights using them. It seems you need the illegals permission to X Ray them !!! The french just turn a blind eye as it is not costing them.
Mr Sorrell what we do need is a program about the state of the industry at the moment, we are at an all time low but no one is interested !!!
Agreed, There are far more pressing problems to make programs about within the UK trucking scene, this is not one of them at all. A program concerning the death of British Transport, well if not death then it has already lost all its hair, thats for sure. Thats the program you should make, if it does not sound exciting enough for the Great British viewing public, then you could point out what would happen if trucks just decided not to bother for one day, that would be a great program to watch.
For those looking to respond to me by e-mail following my earlier posting (see below) - there was a typo with my e-mail. It should read:
lee.sorrell@granadamedia.com
Many thanks
Lee Sorrell
My name is Lee Sorrell. I am head of investigations at ITV’s flagship
current affairs series Tonight.
Rikki Chequer, an administrator for the Forum, has given me the okay to post this note.
The reason for contacting you all is that I am currently conducting some
research into the problems faced by lorry drivers with stowaways
attempting to board their lorries around the French and Belgian
channel ports.
I am aware that, among other things, lorry drivers have been
confronted with intimidation and threats of violence from those
attempting to get into the UK. In some instances, drivers have been
attacked.
I am also aware that drivers have been approached directly by criminals who are involved in organising immigrants to get across at service stations etc in and around the port areas.
I am also aware of the problems of drivers and operators facing fines
if found to have stowaways on board. A common complaint is that many
of these fines have been levelled unfairly.
To assist with my research, I would be grateful for any feedback from drivers who have experienced the type of problems detailed above or have a view on the current situation in the channel port areas.
I want to make sure that when I produce my report, that the views of lorry drivers are taken into account.
Those with something to say on the subject can either contact me through the Forum or by sending an e-mail to me at lee.sorrell@grandamedia.com. The information is for research purposes only and will be treated in strict confidence.
Thanks for taking the time to read this message and I look forward to hearing from some of you.
Regards
Lee Sorrell
As already stated, there are far far more serious issues within the british transport industry at the present time… 
Tiger.
Fastrantiger:
As already stated, there are far far more serious issues within the british transport industry at the present time…
Tiger.
Agreed and unfortunately, i think you will find more people bothered about working hours/petrol prices and getting a job in the first place
I reckon that people would be just as happy to cary the stowaways if they could get the job driving the truck in the first place 
Mr Sorrell…the investigation you are going to carry out is a very important one for International truck drivers, and less of an importance for national drivers, and i welcome your program to highlight the many problems all drivers face, especially when shipping from the continent to the uk.
The problem is increased when crossing through Calais, as the French are feeding and watering the illegals before they board, and if you remember rightly, David Blunkett, gave passage to all the illegal immigrants being held in Sangatte refugee camp, in return for closing the camp down, and not building another. We all know that the reason the illegals head for England is the generous benefits and housing thats offered to these people, and the reason they dont want to stay in another EU country, is the lack of benefits, housing, etc. Stop these handouts, close Sangatte 2, and the illegal immigration problem will fade.
Another issue which needs attending to is, once again an International drivers headache. This is the ease at which a driver on International duty, especially Spain, is automatically arrested and imprisoned when drugs are found amongst the consignment. This often happens when a driver has to load a consignment, and is not allowed to check the load, and it is also almost impossible to check every box or package being loaded. In the early days of International Transportation, all loads from spain had to be examined at a customs post/warehouse, and the trailer would be custom sealed. On arrival at its destination, and sometimes at the port of entry, the seals would be checked to see if they were still intact. This practice was a little way in safeguarding the driver from unscrupulous freight forwarders, or drug importers who would bribe warehouse staff to hide drugs amongst the load.
Often a driver would be used as a decoy, and the customs/police at the frontier would be notified that a drugs load was on its way, along with the registration number, and whilst the authorities would be looking for this particular truck, another would slip by unnoticed, with a larger consignment. Since the abolition of TIR, and T forms throughout the European Union, the drugs trafficking trade has increased, and more and more innocent drivers are languishing in French jails, unable to prove their innocence, so more needs to be done.
If you want the help of drivers on Trucknet, one of the biggest media to the UK transport industry, then may i suggest you at least help us with some of the issues that face the uk transport industry.
here here totaly agree with everything on this post,
but if nobody listens to which they wont then why do the programme in 1st place, to which you know the answer to it.
There was an ITV programme a few weeks back about KILLER FOREIGN LORRIES!!!
The next week the government announced a virtual Free-for -All in the UK for foreign Hauliers. 
I can understand as a journalist you are trying to make a programme to keep yourself in a job and to highlight certain issues,but there’s not a lot of point when the shock factor of the programme lasts for the night it is screened and then the next day it is all forgotten!!!
There are some very serious issues affecting UK transport,to which the government and the good old British public are’nt really interested in.
Im sure your programme will have the same effect.
All the best with it anyway and I mean that.
As with all these tv documentaries the HGV driver always comes out as the bad guy, we pollute the atmosphere, congest the roads, inconvenience car drivers, and of course we are responsible for all the illegals getting into the country. So depending on the type of ‘spin’ used in this documentary we will at best be the bad guy, at worse the cause of the countries immigration problems.
Tiger.
While you are at stories.
Do a story on the B******* who rip of people who want LGV training
Also every one complains about trucks … untill they cant get their pint of milk or newspaper in the morning.
You should not bring that truck down this road
Oh ok so you do not want your food / furniture / white goods / beer / papers / you name it, , it is all delivered by trucks.
LeeSorr:
For those looking to respond to me by e-mail following my earlier posting (see below) - there was a typo with my e-mail. It should read:
lee.sorrell@granadamedia.com
Many thanks
Lee Sorrell
My name is Lee Sorrell. I am head of investigations at ITV’s flagship
current affairs series Tonight.
Rikki Chequer, an administrator for the Forum, has given me the okay to post this note.
The reason for contacting you all is that I am currently conducting some
research into the problems faced by lorry drivers with stowaways
attempting to board their lorries around the French and Belgian
channel ports.
I am aware that, among other things, lorry drivers have been
confronted with intimidation and threats of violence from those
attempting to get into the UK. In some instances, drivers have been
attacked.
I am also aware that drivers have been approached directly by criminals who are involved in organising immigrants to get across at service stations etc in and around the port areas.
I am also aware of the problems of drivers and operators facing fines
if found to have stowaways on board. A common complaint is that many
of these fines have been levelled unfairly.
To assist with my research, I would be grateful for any feedback from drivers who have experienced the type of problems detailed above or have a view on the current situation in the channel port areas.
I want to make sure that when I produce my report, that the views of lorry drivers are taken into account.
Those with something to say on the subject can either contact me through the Forum or by sending an e-mail to me at lee.sorrell@grandamedia.com. The information is for research purposes only and will be treated in strict confidence.
Thanks for taking the time to read this message and I look forward to hearing from some of you.
Regards
Lee Sorrell
Well you are going to write a story when you have tried twice to get your email address correct and failed. What is this world coming to. 
Such a flagship current affairs series 
stormnation:
Fastrantiger:
As already stated, there are far far more serious issues within the british transport industry at the present time…
Tiger.
Agreed and unfortunately, i think you will find more people bothered about working hours/petrol prices and getting a job in the first place
I reckon that people would be just as happy to cary the stowaways if they could get the job driving the truck in the first place
Theres probably more money in “haulin” stowaways than in most sectors of haulage at the moment.
so what time is this programme on so we can see if you have listened to anything we said lol 
xxicelandicxx:
so what time is this programme on so we can see if you have listened to anything we said lol
Er, he hasn’t made the programme yet, his post is to gather info so that he
can make the programme. I’m sure he’ll post here when it’s done.
As usual, a TV producer gets flamed here for apparently not doing the right thing. It’s better to encourage and contribute than merely criticise.
The border problems are a very big issue, as are the local general issues.
Just because you don’t happen to be quite as interested in border issues
doesn’t mean he should change the focus of the prog.
If he gets a positive response to this effort, i’m certain he’ll follow-up with other transport issues later.
I work through Calais and Dunkerque usually going through in the small hours of the morning either way and I and a few of my workmates won’t use the pumps in “Gasoline Alley” despite there being French Security Guards being on site.
Most of the trouble with stowaways comes mainly from what was the Old Hoverport / Fast Craft Terminal before the Freight Entrance because it is used as an overspill parking area by mainly East European drivers, rather than having them blocking up the sliproads from the Port…
The stowaways seem to be mainly attacking drivers for food these days rather than jumping trucks.
One of my workmates did get some stowaways, but he was going in the wrong direction and he dropped them at an Autohof near Cologne.
