Harry Monk:
Dunno if it is true, but I have heard that because the driving categories are different in Poland, you can get a licence to drive an articulated lorry by passing a driving test on an agricultural tractor towing a trailer.
Have also read in the commercial press that there are a lot of forged licences around- VOSA found 17 with the same number…
didn’t you mean to post that in the urban myths thread? the official figures don’t lie i suppose (think we have around 3500 deaths each year from 60 million people?) but poland is safe compared to say yugo for example
Harry Monk:
Dunno if it is true, but I have heard that because the driving categories are different in Poland, you can get a licence to drive an articulated lorry by passing a driving test on an agricultural tractor towing a trailer.
Have also read in the commercial press that there are a lot of forged licences around- VOSA found 17 with the same number…
didn’t you mean to post that in the urban myths thread? the official figures don’t lie i suppose (think we have around 3500 deaths each year from 60 million people?) but poland is safe compared to say yugo for example
I think you missed it all JJ, poland has one of the worst statistical driving records, they have now pushed Ireland up with them. Just wait untill we get ours and get a full picture. But all this is marring the point i am after. Why do companies/agencies/agents go out of their way to recruit Polish drivers who ( on the whole) lack our basic driving standards and may have language barriers and (as has been proven by the fact Peterborough council have had to have “picture diagrams” to explain road signs) have no knowledge of our signs, when they could train the equivalent UK drivers cheaper and quicker, given their obvious advantage of having passed a test here and being fully conversant with the language. Why? Just have a guess?
Harry Monk:
Dunno if it is true, but I have heard that because the driving categories are different in Poland, you can get a licence to drive an articulated lorry by passing a driving test on an agricultural tractor towing a trailer.
Have also read in the commercial press that there are a lot of forged licences around- VOSA found 17 with the same number…
didn’t you mean to post that in the urban myths thread? the official figures don’t lie i suppose (think we have around 3500 deaths each year from 60 million people?) but poland is safe compared to say yugo for example
I think you missed it all JJ, poland has one of the worst statistical driving records, they have now pushed Ireland up with them. Just wait untill we get ours and get a full picture. But all this is marring the point i am after. Why do companies/agencies/agents go out of their way to recruit Polish drivers who ( on the whole) lack our basic driving standards and may have language barriers and (as has been proven by the fact Peterborough council have had to have “picture diagrams” to explain road signs) have no knowledge of our signs, when they could train the equivalent UK drivers cheaper and quicker, given their obvious advantage of having passed a test here and being fully conversant with the language. Why? Just have a guess?
but are they on a lower wage, i just dont understand how they can live on a fiver a week, i find it a nightmare on 7 quid, i just dont see how you can do it on five as most seem to suggest
Harry Monk:
Dunno if it is true, but I have heard that because the driving categories are different in Poland, you can get a licence to drive an articulated lorry by passing a driving test on an agricultural tractor towing a trailer.
Have also read in the commercial press that there are a lot of forged licences around- VOSA found 17 with the same number…
didn’t you mean to post that in the urban myths thread? the official figures don’t lie i suppose (think we have around 3500 deaths each year from 60 million people?) but poland is safe compared to say yugo for example
I think you missed it all JJ, poland has one of the worst statistical driving records, they have now pushed Ireland up with them. Just wait untill we get ours and get a full picture. But all this is marring the point i am after. Why do companies/agencies/agents go out of their way to recruit Polish drivers who ( on the whole) lack our basic driving standards and may have language barriers and (as has been proven by the fact Peterborough council have had to have “picture diagrams” to explain road signs) have no knowledge of our signs, when they could train the equivalent UK drivers cheaper and quicker, given their obvious advantage of having passed a test here and being fully conversant with the language. Why? Just have a guess?
but are they on a lower wage, i just dont understand how they can live on a fiver a week, i find it a nightmare on 7 quid, i just dont see how you can do it on five as most seem to suggest
Mike-C:
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I think you missed it all JJ, poland has one of the worst statistical driving records, they have now pushed Ireland up with them. Just wait untill we get ours and get a full picture. But all this is marring the point i am after. Why do companies/agencies/agents go out of their way to recruit Polish drivers who ( on the whole) lack our basic driving standards and may have language barriers and (as has been proven by the fact Peterborough council have had to have “picture diagrams” to explain road signs) have no knowledge of our signs, when they could train the equivalent UK drivers cheaper and quicker, given their obvious advantage of having passed a test here and being fully conversant with the language. Why? Just have a guess?
Your point was accepted Mike, I just wanted to point out that there were some decent Drivers as well as poor ones.
Having just moved from Peterborough I have personal experience of the situation there and its due to the sheer weight of numbers the area is suffering due to the demands of the produce growers who have actually used eastern immigrants for years in order to get the crops in. Whole areas of the town are becoming enclaves with their own shops and culture developing.
Its a really delicate situation just now to dissemble the differance between racism , common sense and facts. Lumping all people of one ethnic group into a group based on rumour is wrong. Common sense and fact is another matter.
Fact for example is that some companies have found to their cost that their penny pinching atttempts to solve their drive shortage by recruiting large numbers of Polish drivers has on the whole backfired. carters for example even set up recruiters in Poland , provided housing paid for through wages and then found their insurance premium at huge risk due to high total write off rates that suddenly developed. The other side of that is that they have recruited a lot of good workers who work hard and drive well but struggle with the language.
Fact is that I despise companies who are greedily taking polish drivers as a means of increasing profit and as a means of driving downwards the working practices and environments of their origional workforce. they are so deserving of all the trouble this sort of attitude brings and I wish them nothing but bad luck as they deserve it
Harry Monk:
Dunno if it is true, but I have heard that because the driving categories are different in Poland, you can get a licence to drive an articulated lorry by passing a driving test on an agricultural tractor towing a trailer.
Have also read in the commercial press that there are a lot of forged licences around- VOSA found 17 with the same number…
I heard the same story that British agency drivers can take a test on a rigid 4 wheeler with a short arsed trailer than drive a 44 tonne artic with the same licence
Im off to Warsaw on Friday, is there anything I should know?
ady1:
but are they on a lower wage, i just dont understand how they can live on a fiver a week, i find it a nightmare on 7 quid, i just dont see how you can do it on five as most seem to suggest
Well they dont need to pay a mortgage as most of them are 5 or 6 or more to one house so they save money there, They dont pay the ridiculous road tax and insurance we have to, they bring their own cars over, They split council tax between all of them in the house saving even more, i’m sure there are more ways they are saving but i cant thnik ofthemm all at the minute.
jj72:
didn’t you mean to post that in the urban myths thread?
Well I did say it was unverified info
jj72:
the official figures don’t lie i suppose (think we have around 3500 deaths each year from 60 million people?) but poland is safe compared to say yugo for example
2005 figures for Poland are 5,444 fatalities and a population of 38,635,144.
This compared to 3,201 on a population of approx 60,000,000 in the UK
There were road 14 deaths per 100,000 of population compared to 5.6 per 100,000 in the UK.
jj72:
didn’t you mean to post that in the urban myths thread?
Well I did say it was unverified info
jj72:
the official figures don’t lie i suppose (think we have around 3500 deaths each year from 60 million people?) but poland is safe compared to say yugo for example
2005 figures for Poland are 5,444 fatalities and a population of 38,635,144.
This compared to 3,201 on a population of approx 60,000,000 in the UK
There were road 14 deaths per 100,000 of population compared to 5.6 per 100,000 in the UK.
Yeh but they work a lot harder than the lazy British workers.
I worked with a pole for a week & all I can say is that he knew his job, drove as well as anyone, spoke good English & got paid the same rate as everyone else. He was also one of the nicest guys I’ve met!
He had left his wife & kids in Poland & was living with 4 other poles in a rented house… his outgoings were obviously far less than the average family would have. Most of his earnings were being sent to his wife in poland therefore taking that money out of the local community. With small businesses struggling the last thing they need is money that should be spent here disappearing overseas.
As for immigration as a whole it’s not racist to say that this small island is now full! We need a system, like Australia & others, where only people who are needed are allowed in. We just can’t continue with the present “open door” policy we have now.
Harry Monk:
Dunno if it is true, but I have heard that because the driving categories are different in Poland, you can get a licence to drive an articulated lorry by passing a driving test on an agricultural tractor towing a trailer.
Have also read in the commercial press that there are a lot of forged licences around- VOSA found 17 with the same number…
I heard the same story that British agency drivers can take a test on a rigid 4 wheeler with a short arsed trailer than drive a 44 tonne artic with the same licence
Im off to Warsaw on Friday, is there anything I should know?
dafdave
Just one or two points come to mind.I used to do poland and warsaw always be security concious if you get out of the truck for anything LOCK IT i forgot once i got out to ask directions and lost some of my money and my passport.People are generally ok fasten everything loose down in the truck the roads are bad. Things should be a lot easier on the borders now the last time i went was before they entered the eec.Anyway best of luck enjoy it you will find it an experience.
As a newly qualified driver I get pretty irate when I find out foreign drivers are being taken on.
Every job I look at requires at least 6 months experience,which I don’t have.
How do employers expect you to get experience when nobody will give you a start?
How do employers verify foreign drivers: 1)Have the experience they say they have? 2)Have even passed a test in their native country as buying licences without any sort of training is relatively commonplace in these countries?
3)What sort of background checks are they subject to, i.e. police checks?
This Wednesday Scotland play Lithuania at 16:30 now im used to going down the pub and giving and getting some stick from the English, the usual banter and harmless fun about why they dont undersatnd we hate them and they hate us, its history and it goes back a long way but we understand each other.
BUT on Wednesday i feel there might be some trouble because for once the English will be shouting for the Scots as most of them in the pub are sick of the Lithuanians and Poles who are not only taking over our country and our lifestyles but this week they will be taking over our pubs.
Remember the cricket test?, we tried with the Asians and it didnt work■■? this is different , there will be many of these Lithuanians in the pub on Wednesday and me i dont give a ■■■■ because ill stand up on a table and tell them to ■■■■ off home whether we win or lose and uniting with the “auld enemy” might be hard but i can handle that.
The worrying thing is that when the English have to play the Poles in an important game and they win, There will be a bloodbath not only in my local but in pubs across the country and you know what■■?, ill be in there with the cross of St George on my back supporting the English.
a short cut to solve all this anger and resentment could be to get them to build camps somewhere out of the way, (forced labour of course) and prevent them from breeding, then gradually starving them to death. Now theres a bit of new thinking for you…ohhh dash it, I seem to remember its already been done to their race by some guy called Hitler…never mind, back to the drawing board.
daneinter:
a short cut to solve all this anger and resentment could be to get them to build camps somewhere out of the way, (forced labour of course) and prevent them from breeding, then gradually starving them to death. Now theres a bit of new thinking for you…ohhh dash it, I seem to remember its already been done to their race by some guy called Hitler…never mind, back to the drawing board.
Suits me fine as long as my job is safe, i dont give a ■■■■.
daneinter:
gsm31 wrote:
3)What sort of background checks are they subject to, i.e. police checks?
Dunno, have you had a police check?
Neither did Huntly but we all know what happens when the law lets things slip dont we?.
We can tcontrol our own criminals let alone anyone from another country.
jammymutt:
This Wednesday Scotland play Lithuania at 16:30 .
The majority of the Lithuanian team will probably be from Heart of Midlothian (Scotland) football team.
The football clubs in this country have got a lot to answer for.
Foreign Owners,Managers and players galore.
No wonder home grown talent hardly ever make it,they never get the chance.
U.E.F.A. should bring back the limit of 3 foreigners per team on the pitch.
Funny how you can go off people isn’t it. I was going to post that you should keep at it Gsm as I’m sure that you will find a job eventually but I’ve changed my mind cos if you drivings as nasty as you attitude I would rather you stayed off my road
the official figures don’t lie i suppose (think we have around 3500 deaths each year from 60 million people?) but poland is safe compared to say yugo for example
