‘Shop a foreigner’ thats the headline on this months Truckstop news. The FTA and RHA are up in arms over the illegal cabotage performed by ‘foreign’ hauliers in the UK., and it seems they have the help of the DfT and VOSA in fighting it. They would now like our help, and we should ‘shop’ any we believe are performing these illegal operations over here as ‘due to lower fuel duty and cheaper labour rates’ they are able to undercut the domestic fleet.Now before you all consider rushing out with your pens and paper, you might like to consider that a lot of UK companies have no compunction at all in availing themselves of this cheap ‘foreign’ labour when it suits them, under the guise of ‘filling the skills gap’ !! Indeed Fowler Welch (coolchain), who have recently announced massive profits even have a scheme going with Lincoln University where they teach their Polish staff the English language and also help them to understand UK driving practices. Around 660 trucks they have and a staff of over 800 (mainly Polish), and they’ve just reported record profits despite this ‘illegal cabotage’ threat. Good on them i say!! We either have a free/common market or we don’t, after all we all have the same licence and the same trucks, sureley being able to choose where to fill up or register your truck is one of the benefits of being in the EU?
Meanwhile, i’ve got operation ‘sabotage’ going. Everytime i see a ‘foreign’ driver in a UK truck, i report it to VOSA!! You could make them up!!
Mike-C:
Indeed Fowler Welch (coolchain), who have recently announced massive profits even have a scheme going with Lincoln University where they teach their Polish staff the English language and also help them to understand UK driving practices. Around 660 trucks they have and a staff of over 800 (mainly Polish), and they’ve just reported record profits despite this ‘illegal cabotage’ threat.
Mainly Polish ■■?
Whoever told you that Mike?
I aint Polish, nor are the other 30 odd drivers working out of the Gateshead Depot although we do have 2 polish lads working with us in Gateshead, quite good lads at that who are treat as just another one of the lads.
Spalding have around about 12 polish lads there which still falls well below the Majority, Yes the DART GROUP did make something like £40 million pound profit last year, but bear in mind that the Dart group also includes the likes of Jet2.Com etc
In all honesty its hard to see how Fowler Welch as an individual company makes a profit as its obviously cheaper to have drivers sitting waiting for trucks and paying them waiting time and also pay the fines on late deliveries than it is to go out and hire trucks for the job.
But then again the wage is only £6.27ph for the first 8 hrs regardless of day shift or night shift then £8.40? after that (Sorry aint got a payslip handy at the moment.) the actual work involves a lot of waiting time so theres not really any hard labour involved, personally I dont get any hassle from the traffic office I’ll go in and do the job.
Off hand there is only once I refused to go to the place I was told and basically that was because I knew for a fact I could not get back within the 13 hrs, I was going to Spalding Sun Mon & Tues nights then Livingston Wed & Thurs night but an Agency driver decided he did not want Spalding and they let him go to Livingston instead telling me to do Spalding, I stood my ground and ended up doing a changeover at Barton Services, yes I felt bad about it but at the end of the day it’s my neck on the line along with my marriage that was suffering through constant long hours.
But getting back to the Poles, If anything like a high percentage are employed at the Teynham Depot it would in my opinion still only add up to around 25% of the driver workforce being polish but they are paid exactly the same rates as the British Drivers and Teynham are higher paid than the rest of the Fowler Welch Drivers.
So its not the employing of Poles that has made the company money, I’ll not include the comment I was oriiginally going to make as you can guarantee a link would be sent to Fowler Welch 
Davey Driver:
£6.27ph for the first 8 hrs regardless of day shift or night shift then £8.40?
People actually drive trucks for that money?, Is it any wodnder the rates for drivers is so low if idiots work for less than £8 an hour■■?.
Davey Driver:
Mike-C:
Indeed Fowler Welch (coolchain), who have recently announced massive profits even have a scheme going with Lincoln University where they teach their Polish staff the English language and also help them to understand UK driving practices. Around 660 trucks they have and a staff of over 800 (mainly Polish), and they’ve just reported record profits despite this ‘illegal cabotage’ threat.Mainly Polish ■■?
Whoever told you that Mike?
I aint Polish, nor are the other 30 odd drivers working out of the Gateshead Depot although we do have 2 polish lads working with us in Gateshead, quite good lads at that who are treat as just another one of the lads.
Spalding have around about 12 polish lads there which still falls well below the Majority, Yes the DART GROUP did make something like £40 million pound profit last year, but bear in mind that the Dart group also includes the likes of Jet2.Com etc
In all honesty its hard to see how Fowler Welch as an individual company makes a profit as its obviously cheaper to have drivers sitting waiting for trucks and paying them waiting time and also pay the fines on late deliveries than it is to go out and hire trucks for the job.
But then again the wage is only £6.27ph for the first 8 hrs regardless of day shift or night shift then £8.40? after that (Sorry aint got a payslip handy at the moment.) the actual work involves a lot of waiting time so theres not really any hard labour involved, personally I dont get any hassle from the traffic office I’ll go in and do the job.
Off hand there is only once I refused to go to the place I was told and basically that was because I knew for a fact I could not get back within the 13 hrs, I was going to Spalding Sun Mon & Tues nights then Livingston Wed & Thurs night but an Agency driver decided he did not want Spalding and they let him go to Livingston instead telling me to do Spalding, I stood my ground and ended up doing a changeover at Barton Services, yes I felt bad about it but at the end of the day it’s my neck on the line along with my marriage that was suffering through constant long hours.
But getting back to the Poles, If anything like a high percentage are employed at the Teynham Depot it would in my opinion still only add up to around 25% of the driver workforce being polish but they are paid exactly the same rates as the British Drivers and Teynham are higher paid than the rest of the Fowler Welch Drivers.
So its not the employing of Poles that has made the company money, I’ll not include the comment I was oriiginally going to make as you can guarantee a link would be sent to Fowler Welch
Got it all wong did i?
Pleasingly, one of the major constraints on growth in the distribution business - a shortage of qualified drivers - is receding as well-qualified personnel from Eastern Europe are becoming increasingly available.
Courtesy of Fowler Welch (Dart group) here.
Until recently a considerable constraint on the UK road transport industry has been the availability of suitably qualified heavy goods vehicle drivers. Following the accession of Poland and other Eastern European countries to the EC and the British Government’s wise decision to admit those countries’ workers to the UK labour market, this shortage has been alleviated. Whilst their driving licences are accepted in the UK, Fowler Welch-Coolchain has trained mainly Polish drivers to a higher standard. In conjunction with Lincoln University, the company has set up a training scheme to improve their spoken English and understanding of UK driving practices and our customers’ needs.
from here.
With a pay rate of £6.27 an hour i fully understand why they need to enlist the Universities help to gain employees!!
jammymutt:
wodner the ratse
LOL !! Gallic?!!!
jammymutt:
Davey Driver:
£6.27ph for the first 8 hrs regardless of day shift or night shift then £8.40?People actually drive trucks for that money?, Is it any wodnder the rates for drivers is so low if idiots work for less than £8 an hour■■?.
Yep Jammy they do, probably because
A) There aint a decent wage to be paid in the North East
B) If you dont take a job you get less on the Dole
C) Because some people would rather live off low wages than Scrounge off the State
D) Because some drivers prefer to just soldier on in life regardless what is going on around them
E) Because Tax Credits are paid to families on low income (From the tax you pay on your higher earnings) 
F) Because low wages probably still allows the person concerned to live comfortably
G) They have realised that high income is not required as the Truck is already fitted with front Spotlamps / Fog Lamps 
So whats it to be?
Drivers are bone idle coz they wont go out to work for a crap wage and would rather sit around the house
OR
Drivers would rather work for Crap wages than be a leach on society and collect state benefits?
Sorry Jammy but its a No win situation which we all know will never EVER improve.
Mike-C:
Got it all wong did i?
Yes you have Mis-Quoted Mike
It does not state ANYWHERE like you imply that the staff are mainly Polish, it states they have trained mainly polish staff i.e the majority are from Poland when there are also Other nationalities employed as well
Davey Driver:
Mike-C:
Got it all wong did i?Yes you have Mis-Quoted Mike
It does not state ANYWHERE like you imply that the staff are mainly Polish, it states they have trained mainly polish staff i.e the majority are from Poland when there are also Other nationalities employed as well
Go check the warehousing staff as well! You quoted 30 odd drivers here and there, the whole operation employs 800 odd, you don’t reckon most are from other EU states? But the point of me mentioning it is that some companies (yours) attribute part of there profitability to having access to EU labour. Now other ‘industry’ bodies are complaining that EU operators are doing them out of buisness. Nearly all the Christian Salvesen waste depots are fully staffed with ‘foreign’ labour. Like i said, they like to use them when it suits them ,and when they want to compete against them they whinge to the DfT and VOSA. I can’t wait until it’s all open market, you could order your groceries on line from abroad, they’d be shipped over daily, and then sent up in smaller quantities ready for door to door delivery, much cheaper!!! How is a vehicle operator going to compete against wages of £6.27, my missus nearly gets that on the till in Tescos. Oh, the quoted 600 odd trucks is actually trailers, make that 260 odd tractor units !! And still 800 staff.
Fowler Welch is accredited with IS0 9002 Quality Standard and Investor In People status 
Mike-C:
Fowler Welch is accredited with IS0 9002 Quality Standard and Investor In People status
yeah invest in foreign people more like
Whoops!! 
Silly Cow that I am - posted the wrong pic.
My first attempy at posting a pic and got it wrong. 
Trying again.
forgive the ignorance
What is Cabotage?
From Wikipedia,
Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two points in the same country. Originally starting with shipping, it now also covers aviation and road transport.
Its regulation restricting it to carriers from that country is a form of protectionism and alleged to lead to economic and environment inefficiency; justifications used include national security and the need to regulate issues such as safety.
Also commonly used as part of the term Cabotage rights, meaning the right of a company from one country to trade in another country. In aviation terms, it is the right to operate within the domestic borders of another country. Most countries do not permit Cabotage by foreigners, although this is changing within Europe for member states of the European community
Which basically means that employers don’t mind us competing with members of the EU states for work, but they don’t want to have to do the same thing. Cabotage should be scrapped, and any truck from the EU should be allowed to work here, after all, we’re all European arn’t we?
Mike-C:
From Wikipedia,Cabotage is the transport of goods or passengers between two points in the same country. Originally starting with shipping, it now also covers aviation and road transport.
Its regulation restricting it to carriers from that country is a form of protectionism and alleged to lead to economic and environment inefficiency; justifications used include national security and the need to regulate issues such as safety.
Also commonly used as part of the term Cabotage rights, meaning the right of a company from one country to trade in another country. In aviation terms, it is the right to operate within the domestic borders of another country. Most countries do not permit Cabotage by foreigners, although this is changing within Europe for member states of the European community
Which basically means that employers don’t mind us competing with members of the EU states for work, but they don’t want to have to do the same thing. Cabotage should be scrapped, and any truck from the EU should be allowed to work here, after all, we’re all European arn’t we?
Yeah agree with you, and they can pay our road tax and diesel duty afterall we must have a level playingfield.
Mike Fowler Welch will maybe employ 800 staff throughout the business, but this includes Drivers, Warehouse and Office staff.
I dont doubt that a number of Poles work within the warehousing but one thing is for certain, the majority of staff will be English and at max I would suggest maybe 25% of the workforce in total may be foreign.
Cabotage is not illegal in the EU for EU member states, its only illegal when its a copmpany from outside of the EU that is picking goods up and delivering them in the same country, i.e a Turkish Truck collecting in Newcastle and delivering in London.
Cabotage was actually abolished at the same time the borders were removed between member states. The Problem is the press do not take into account these small innaccuracies when the publish their stories and class any truck from outside of the UK as being foreign and not permitted to cabotage.
Yes I totally disagree with the fact a French Truck etc can come into the UK and not pay charges such as Road Tax etc, but is this not the fault of the government for allowing this to go on for so long?
Can you honestly say that you personally would not take advantage of making money in the same way as foreign companies from France and Germany etc even at the expense of the UK hauliers?
Until the British Government get it into their tiny minds that high taxes on the transport industry is doing more damage than enough, nothing will improve.
On a lighter note though, there are 2 polish drivers working out of our depot and it appears that one was taking the [zb] out of a polish driver delivering goods (In his Polish Truck) for still driving for a polish operator in the UK when he could have twice the wage for driving in the UK with a UK operator. its good to see they also have a sense of humour
I’m not disagreeing with your ideology of your original post, I’m disagreeing with your impression that the majority of Fowlers 800 staff are Polish when in fact they are not.
Can we stop the question of non-british- vehicles paying roadtax
as no British lorry pays road tax in any other country,
YES they pay a fee for use of the roads,well in germany
as well as paying road tax ,we also have to pay for use
of all motorways in Germany,AND also road tax and road
charges are raised in other european country as well,
so that ends that argument,
AND when the euro-vingette first come out the UK
said no, and go further back when only 200 liters was allowed
for trucks,IT was NOT enforced in the UK like it was in the other
countrys,
I heard another rumour this week.
As you probably know, by the end of June 2007 all trainee LGV drivers will have to take their tests on a minimum of eight speed box with range change and also pull a trailer with full box and longer lengths to comply with EU regulations.
Except that Europe have now backtracked as the Belgians complained about the expense and so did Germany.
So Europe will not be bringing this legislation into play untill 2010 but Britain are still sticking with it and are enforcing it as from 2007.
What annoys me is that it was a European ruling to start with - but as usual only silly old Britain are comlying.
Davey Driver:
Mike Fowler Welch will maybe employ 800 staff throughout the business, but this includes Drivers, Warehouse and Office staff.I dont doubt that a number of Poles work within the warehousing but one thing is for certain, the majority of staff will be English and at max I would suggest maybe 25% of the workforce in total may be foreign.
Well i had ‘heard’ many where Poles and when i read the above, i interpreted it as ‘mainly’, but they have put some of this buisness success down to having access to EU labour markets, but if you say the majority are not, then you will know better than me so i retract that bit. The point i was trying to get across is the way some companies bemoan aspects of the EU whilst at the same time taking full advantage of its perks. Not that i’m saying your place in particular are complaining.
Cabotage is not illegal in the EU for EU member states, its only illegal when its a copmpany from outside of the EU that is picking goods up and delivering them in the same country, i.e a Turkish Truck collecting in Newcastle and delivering in London.
Cabotage was actually abolished at the same time the borders were removed between member states. The Problem is the press do not take into account these small innaccuracies when the publish their stories and class any truck from outside of the UK as being foreign and not permitted to cabotage.
I think that was the case but are you sure it is now? From what the DfT are saying it doesn’t seem to be. They (the trade associations) are calling for ‘foreign’ trucks to identify themselves, i thought this was laughable as well as discriminatory.
Yes I totally disagree with the fact a French Truck etc can come into the UK and not pay charges such as Road Tax etc, but is this not the fault of the government for allowing this to go on for so long?
Can you honestly say that you personally would not take advantage of making money in the same way as foreign companies from France and Germany etc even at the expense of the UK hauliers?
I don’t disagree with the fact they can come here and do that!! If its a common market with free trade, then lets have it. What it does do is highlight the fact of how our government tax their own haulage industry to as high a limit as they can, whilst their EU counterparts do not.
Until the British Government get it into their tiny minds that high taxes on the transport industry is doing more damage than enough, nothing will improve.
Well if that Truckstop news report (and others i’ve read) is anything to go by, it looks like they’re going to try and stop any competition rather than try to compete fairly with it.
On a lighter note though, there are 2 polish drivers working out of our depot and it appears that one was taking the [zb] out of a polish driver delivering goods (In his Polish Truck) for still driving for a polish operator in the UK when he could have twice the wage for driving in the UK with a UK operator. its good to see they also have a sense of humour
I think that situation will change in a couple of years, people are all the same and they ain’t soft. Buisnesses can make hay whilst the sun shines, coming from the poorer EU states for not much more than the minimum wage may be an attractive proposition right now, but as their own economys are catching up fast and they pay UK living costs for a bit then it won’t be
I’m not disagreeing with your ideology of your original post, I’m disagreeing with your impression that the majority of Fowlers 800 staff are Polish when in fact they are not.
I’ll accept that!!
At present Polish Workers along of course with many other EU countries expatriates are coming to work in the UK, but you have to wonder if thats because of the wages or is it because of the additional benefits such as free health care, free education and social security benefits etc?
Lets face it, Poland joined the EC but whats happened to the Minimum Wage Bill for them? surely if its legally implemented in the UK then ALL member states should be oblidged to comply, or is the minimum wage just a UK thing? if so then Europe should be implementing that to keep things fair throughout this so called economic community.