…what a crap hole!
Have to seal empty containers, expect you to write out extra paperwork cos they are too lazy to get off their fat arse and photocopy it, won’t accept RHIDES card as ID…has to be DL, passport or first born child, no coffee in the machine, and long bloody queues!
How hard is it to get rid of an empty?
You have to seal an empty container and state it as empty because you are offloading it in a customs controlled area. If anything is found in it after you have said its empty it will be down to you and its likeley the empty box will be shipped hence you bringing it into the port instead of a storage yard.
They won’t photocopy for you as they only require one note from you for the box you’re bringing in, i would imagine if you need copies then thats up to you not them but they do issue you with a receipt.
They aint part of the RHIDES scheme so don’t recogise it. Passport or drivers licence is usually whats needed for ID, or oe of their own ID cards which you can apply for if using the port regular.
I don’t use the coffee machine i use my own kettle .Queues can be long though as you say. Its crap when you go somewhere and don’t know all the procedures, does my nuts in !!! 
There’s 2 sisters that work there, 1 is quite nice and friendly, the other you splash if she’s near a puddle because she’s an annoying little pig faced git.
I know what you mean mate
Been there before when there’s been that many lines that we’ve been queued outside the compound, but, on that occasion, they got through us pretty quick, under 2hr wait, whereas I’ve been there for 4 hrs when there’s only been 8 or 9 lines 
I haven’t been up there for years thankfully, the place was chaos & I nearly had a punch up with another driver After booking in you went into a holding area & parked in a kind of semi circle, you took whatever slot you could get into & had to remember the lorry that went through the barrier before you, after he had gone onto a grid it was your turn next, well I had a red 113 with an empty 20’ skelly in front of me, so I sat back & waited, after three or four had gone through the red Scania took his turn, so I fired the old girl up & followed him to wait for the next grid available, then my door opened & some bloke was standing there shouting his mouth off that I was jumping the queue & was getting a slap, I told the bloke to ■■■■ off, I was behind the red 113, it was my turn next & if anyone was going to get a slap it wasn’t me, after a bit more shouting & male posturing another driver jumped out & started too, oh great i thought, the Scouse Mafia ganging up on the stranger, well bollox to that, I was going to stand my ground, then a grid became available & I got back in my motor & went on it, it was about 20 mins before my box came & in that time my new mate came on the grid next to me, drawing his fingers across his throat & making the Nescafe sign at me, after him came another four or five lorries, three of which were red 113s with empty 20’ skellies, it seemed Mr Angry & his mate were right after all, I had jumped the queue 
I don’t know why he couldn’t of pointed it out politely, you probly would have moved then, it’s the attitude problem that gets me. A lot of drivers don’t know what they’re doing in container terminals and you get these pricks who are in there everyday giving it the big un.
Silver_Surfer:
I don’t know why he couldn’t of pointed it out politely, you probly would have moved then, it’s the attitude problem that gets me. A lot of drivers don’t know what they’re doing in container terminals and you get these pricks who are in there everyday giving it the big un.
Exactly, he could see I was a ‘foreigner’ the whole episode was totally avoidable, firstly by having some kind of guide to the dock leaflet, secondly by the attitude of the local bloke, still I got done half an hour quicker 
newmercman:
Exactly, he could see I was a ‘foreigner’ the whole episode was totally avoidable
They used to fight amongst themselves all the time there. As you say there was no instruction of what to do and it was a case of drive through pull up where you could and go when you thought you could. Mayhem !!
nothing worse than goin in 4 a box friday afternoon an its 12 lanes or back down strand rd exit
it is a ■■■■■■■■■ if you hav’nt been before you wil b like a lost soul, as posted above just remember who was in front of ya !!! and dont drop the i’d card when leaving the port, pain in the arse squeezin out the door to retrieve it
Mike-C:
They used to fight amongst themselves all the time there. As you say there was no instruction of what to do and it was a case of drive through pull up where you could and go when you thought you could. Mayhem !!
I can’t help raising a slight smile when I read stories like this.
Just imagine trying to cross the border between Italy and Austria before Austria was in the EU.
Those {zb}ing Austrians used to change the procedure on a weekly basis, and shuffle the order of the little windows where you had to queue to get various stamps on various bits of paper, now add to that that there’d be drivers arguing with each other in many different languages. 
I’ve known it take 30 hours to cross that border from arriving at the back of the queue to being cleared to go through. That’s after arriving with all paperwork spot-on and with a pre-sealed trailer.
The fun part of it all was that we’d have to do the same again to get into Germany after driving just 110 km and paying a hefty tax just to go through Austria.
Other borders with worse stats are available. 
The joys of trucking eh?? 
dieseldave:
Mike-C:
They used to fight amongst themselves all the time there. As you say there was no instruction of what to do and it was a case of drive through pull up where you could and go when you thought you could. Mayhem !!I can’t help raising a slight smile when I read stories like this.
Just imagine trying to cross the border between Italy and Austria before Austria was in the EU.
Those {zb}ing Austrians used to change the procedure on a weekly basis, and shuffle the order of the little windows where you had to queue to get various stamps on various bits of paper, now add to that that there’d be drivers arguing with each other in many different languages.I’ve known it take 30 hours to cross that border from arriving at the back of the queue to being cleared to go through. That’s after arriving with all paperwork spot-on and with a pre-sealed trailer.
The fun part of it all was that we’d have to do the same again to get into Germany after driving just 110 km and paying a hefty tax just to go through Austria.
Other borders with worse stats are available.
The joys of trucking eh??
Como/Chiasso were as bad, taking your turn is an unknown phenomenom in Italy
seaforth docks,it should be called the bermuda triangle.
you go in and dont know when you will get out.
i had the misfortune to do a little bit of container work[which i hate],it was all from seaforth.
i went in one evening at 4.30 to get a container on after being told by the office there was no queue.
there was 8 lines,i turned around and brought the truck back to the yard and packed the job in.
container work should be banned.
i despise container work and always did even when i was working in dublin docks many years ago.
and the cheeky managment peel holdings want to expand the dock and they cant cope with what they have now.
newmercman:
Como/Chiasso were as bad, taking your turn is an unknown phenomenom in Italy
Hi newmercman, You aren’t wrong there mate.
If you were stuck in the compound at border closing time, that’s where you stayed until morning.
At least Austria didn’t shut at night.
When transiting Swiss, I quickly learned to give Como/Chiasso (and Basle ) a miss and use Vallorbe and the Simplon with the added bonus of it being very unlikely that they could sting you for the second day’s tax.
think id rather spend a night waiting around chiasso as opposed to spending hours in seaforth or any dock waiting to load a container,at least in chiasso you can go to the restaurant.
DonutUK:
…what a crap hole!Have to seal empty containers, expect you to write out extra paperwork cos they are too lazy to get off their fat arse and photocopy it, won’t accept RHIDES card as ID…has to be DL, passport or first born child, no coffee in the machine, and long bloody queues!
How hard is it to get rid of an empty?
is that ■■■■■■■■ still open i went there about 5 yrs ago you have to line up to be booked on and this fat old bird said got id ur yes passport/d/licence army pass was on army contract container no pin no all ok sorry but the ship has unloaded your container by mistake in southhampton alwell save logging 20t of goods to dorsit dont do container anymore european work don t see the boss pays me weekly new unit on contract e/s spainsh run of chilled goods in france for weekend til monday take it easy
greg50:
think id rather spend a night waiting around chiasso as opposed to spending hours in seaforth or any dock waiting to load a container,at least in chiasso you can go to the restaurant.
Hi greg50, I’ve spent a few nights at the Chiasso border once it shut, but this wasn’t productive when we were on trip-money, so as you know, alternatives had to be found.
I’ve wandered some way from the Seaforth topic, sorry chaps.
thankfully now dave,all the irish companies[or most] are paying per day as the trip money in illegal and always has been but they got away with it and we paid the price.
i parked at chiasso last year,waiting for customs to get into italy the following morning,
it was fine,i found a little restaurant and went in,got the grub and vino.
much better than the canteen in seaforth.of course you could never get wine in the dock canteen anyway,just undercooked crap.
mark h:
nothing worse than goin in 4 a box friday afternoon an its 12 lanes or back down strand rd exitit is a [zb], if you hav’nt been before you wil b like a lost soul, as posted above just remember who was in front of ya !!! and dont drop the i’d card when leaving the port, pain in the arse squeezin out the door to retrieve it
have you bin down with your dad have you m8?
we don’t do many containers, maybe one or two a year. i went there with the missus one saturday.
i was told it wasn’t due off the boat until 11am. and it was off at 11am exactly. but then customs wanted a look at it, so i went for a bite to eat, and gave her a good seeing to. then i went back. by the time customs had finished with it, the dock was shut.
so i went back on sunday night, got the box, then over the top to belfast. it was 6 pallets of glue in a 40’ container.
good weekend really, i got paid to spend the day with the missus.
dagv8:
mark h:
nothing worse than goin in 4 a box friday afternoon an its 12 lanes or back down strand rd exitit is a [zb], if you hav’nt been before you wil b like a lost soul, as posted above just remember who was in front of ya !!! and dont drop the i’d card when leaving the port, pain in the arse squeezin out the door to retrieve it
have you bin down with your dad have you m8?
ya could say tha !!!
Took me and some others 4 hrs last tuesday to get 2 m/t 20s on just to take them to hams hall . Cant work out why thet dint just put them on the train.