Well thats it, the first European trip under my belt and what a pleasurable trip it was. Unfortunately no diary as I forgot to charge the batteries up on my camera before leaving.
Found the Maut system quite easy, although quite a pain at times. I had been told, before leaving, to make sure I had a ticket for where ever I was on the Autobann. When you only want to go a couple of junctions that was when it became tedious.
I don’t think it would have been as easy without my GPS system though. It put me back on course a couple of times. My only complaint is the amount of no overtaking for Trucks, and as some of them went on for miles, remembering if they had been cancelled or not was a problem. Found the food in the Rastoff’s ok but didn’t try any Autohof’s, will try nex week hopefully. A distinct lack of British registered trucks, only saw one and a couple of Irish reg trucks.
I wasn’t impressed with the return crossing though, I was shipped Ostend to Ipswich as my first drop was Boston. When we landed at 12.15am I was set upon by customs. Which took a full hour so couldn,t move after that and had to sleep on the docks.
Looking forward to next week. One drop in Neuss, which is groupage and the next 2 drops are Mulen near Osnabruck and Lubek so looking forward to another decent trip.
Hi glad you enjoyed yourself ,in regards to the maut it will be to you and your employers advantage to get fitted a OBU --MAUT UNIT as this can save no end of time and troble when your route is blocked and you can not change any details as regards to your ticket not forgetting that you have a time limit when useing the ticket system,where upon with the OBU
this is no problem. as regards to auto-hof,s by the Dusseldorf-Holzhausern, mistake rectified,once coffeholic had informned me of my silp.
exit by the HENKEL factory is a nice spot with a fee-payable parking area
by Osnabrück-nord is another place to try out,
The no-over takeing bans are wide spread in Germany and the fines and points accumalated are not low, If you are given points these will be put in a account in your name in the german equiverlent of DVLC when the limit is reached you will be informened that you are banned from driveing in
Germany for 2-3 years this goes for car as well as your lorry ,
Be careful with your speed the law is in GERMANYthat for every time you
exceed the speed limit and it is shown on your tachograph then so often can they fine you if they so wish, although this all depends on how you respond to the nice police officer, be polite and they will treat you the same way, The traffic report is put out on the hour and every half hour
STAU= TRAFFIC JAM UNFALLE = ACCIDENT GESPERT== CLOSED
UMLIETUNG== DIVERSION these are a few words that you will hear on the radio,also the BFBS ( BRITISH FORCES ) can be heard on FM
I will have a look and se if i can post these frequenceys on the usefulposts link later, just a few tipsbut all you have to dois ask away here and some one will give you her/his answer to help you out.
HAVE JUST LOOKED check this site out by going through the old posts ashere is quite a lot of info also on the useful links site are some good links which can make your work easyier when used,
westie:
Hi All,
A distinct lack of British registered trucks, only saw one and a couple of Irish reg trucks.
I noticed the same when I was over there the other week with family. I dont think I saw a single British truck in Germany at all, perhaps just one, a Stobart but it may well have been a Belgian registered one. My dad stopped going regular Germany in about 2001 and then there were loads of British trucks, nearly all with British drivers to. I did see a handful of Brits in Holland/Belgium/France but you could count them on both hands. In comparison there were litterally countless Polish trucks heading for Dunkerque/Calais and the Norfolk Line ferry was 75% filled with Polish trucks alone, only one British truck on the ferry, two Italians, one Turk, one Romanian and a few Dutch and Germans. Though on a brighter note, my dad came back on a P&O boat Calais-Dover on Thursday and over half the trucks were British.
Glad it went well Westie, keep us informed on next weeks trip. As far as the overtaking restrictions go, when you can’t remember if it is still in place or not check for signs just after a junction. If there is a ban there will be a sign for those joing the autobahn.
brit pete:
as regards to auto-hof,s by the Duisberg-Holzhausern
exit by the HENKEL factory is a nice spot with a fee-payable parking area
westie:
I wasn’t impressed with the return crossing though, I was shipped Ostend to Ipswich as my first drop was Boston. When we landed at 12.15am I was set upon by customs. Which took a full hour so couldn,t move after that and had to sleep on the docks.
I used to use Ipswich every week when I drove for Van Maanen,though it was North Sea Ferries in those day’s and used to run to Europoort.
But,Ipswich was the training area for the whole of the east coast for the jolly customs officers,and if you were a regular they never really bothered you,but if it was your first time then pound to a penny you were going to be in the shed in the morning for a full turn out!
You used to see the odd new face getting on the boat in Europoort and the first thing they’d say was “What’s the customs like in Ipswich,only I’ve got a few extra duty free’s” Best you chuck 'em over the side then!
It was a good route though,most of the drivers were regulars from Van Maanen,Spalding Haulage,H.C.Wilson,as well as some regular Danes and Belgians so it was like a club.
Even the regular’s didn’t escape the odd turn out.One Saturday morning we were lined up on the quay awaiting clearance when a couple of customs men walk up and ask us if we have anything extra to declare?
Among us was Pete Chambers,a driver with Spalding Haulage,who always swore he never brought any extra in as it wasn’t worth it.
Only they walk straight up to his Mercedes 2048 and tell him they are going to remove the front corner deflector.Behind it were hidden 800 ■■■■!
Poor old Pete didn’t know where to look
Someone must have seen him putting them there in Holland and shopped him.
sometimes customs will pull you in if you return into a different port than the one you went out from, for some reason they don’t understand transport logistics (a bit like labour really), your reason is a sensible transport option - saves fuel etc. but customs don’t understand, i’ve lost count of the amount of times i have had to try to explain in the past that i don’t decide which way to ship out and which way to ship in - that the transport manager or controller makes those decisions etc. but they don’t get it - they still think it’s suspicious activity.
Thanks for all the replies. I am glad you put me right on that autohof Neil, Duisberg was one of the places I made a wrong turn and I had a little tour around the suburbs.
Thanks Brit Pete for all the info and all noted.
Yep that was me Johnny, I didn’t fancy the Ostend crossing and had set my plans to catch the 3.30pm Norfolk line when the boss diverted me.You go where your told. At least the food was free and a cabin provided, not that I used the cabin on an afternoon sailing.
For KW. The company I went with was Ferryways. Normally freight only, but room for about 8 Accompanied outfits and their drivers. Not stabilised and a bit rough around the edges… The customs were about to start dismantling the steps on the Magnum when I showed them the side panel which hinged out over, I think they got fed up of me being so helpful in the end.
brit pete:
as regards to auto-hof,s by the Duisberg-Holzhausern
exit by the HENKEL factory is a nice spot with a fee-payable parking area
That would be Düsseldorf, not Duisburg Pete.
Is that the Heinkel bomber factory, or the Henkel plastics factory
To be fair in my experience, any new face or even a new truck on a strange route is liable to get the full latex glove treatment from customs although in felixstowe they could be quite rough with regulars too.
Another problem with customs is that if anyone gets a problem in the company, the company gets a bad name and the other drivers suffer! I dont care though, I have all the time in the world for them if they stop drugs and gun running
