What’s the score with these stobart Bulgarian reg left hookers you see now and again?
Are they from U.K. Driven by British drivers employed in the U.K. But who most of their time over the water? Or have stobarts got a fleet over there with drivers based and Empoyed over there?
I would imagine its some kind of tax fiddle and much cheaper to operate than in Britain. Cant think of any other reason they’d bother.
Their euro drivers don’t get a good rep though, i think the worst was the one caught reversing down the M6 Toll while he was drunk. Read many other reports of stobart euro drivers causing all sorts of problems.
Hammy747:
I would imagine its some kind of tax fiddle and much cheaper to operate than in Britain. Cant think of any other reason they’d bother.Their euro drivers don’t get a good rep though, i think the worst was the one caught reversing down the M6 Toll while he was drunk. Read many other reports of stobart euro drivers causing all sorts of problems.
Their base at Sevlievo does car storage and car transporters work out of there.
Much cheaper to run vehicles out of Bulgaria plus (although a grey area) there is access to cheap fuel at 0.55eur per litre via Belarus…
haven’t ever seen a Stobart wagon on BG plates but the CZ plated scania top liners are in JLR solihull delivering aluminium to the press shop most days
AndrewG:
Hammy747:
there is access to cheap fuel at 0.55eur per litre via Belarus…
please explain
milodon:
AndrewG:
Hammy747:
there is access to cheap fuel at 0.55eur per litre via Belarus…please explain
A backdoor corridor of fuel in black 1000litre IBC tanks loaded onto groupage tilts available RO/BG and beyond. Usually labelled up as distilled water or syrup/food stuffs of different kinds…
I see quite a few of their BG, RO, SK. trucks in Northern France & Belgium. Defo not British drivers.
AndrewG:
A backdoor corridor of fuel in black 1000litre IBC tanks loaded onto groupage tilts available RO/BG and beyond. Usually labelled up as distilled water or syrup/food stuffs of different kinds…
Find it hard to believe unfortunately. I dare to presume that you’re not familiar with the border crossings involved, but a lorry carrying groupage out of Belarus(Russia, Ukraine etc) would be checked up to the point of unloading (been there done that at Kapikule/Kapitan Andreevo TR/BG border) as it is not exactly common for anything resembling groupage to come out of those countries. I once stood in line at the UA/PL border in Dorohusk with a gentleman heading to Schiphol airport from Kyiv empty, some 2000km as there is very little coming out of those countries.
You would need to bribe the customs officials at both sides and for what? A company buying bulk gets a price of around €.70 for fuel in Bg, and nobody gets to go to jail.
AndrewG:
Their base at Sevlievo does car storage and car transporters work out of there.
Much cheaper to run vehicles out of Bulgaria plus (although a grey area) there is access to cheap fuel at 0.55eur per litre via Belarus…
Belarus would be somewhat inconvenient if you’re driving from Bulgaria to the UK or anywhere except Poland or the Baltic states. It’s nowhere near Bulgaria. Moldova or Ukraine might be just about feasible, though more for Romania than Bulgaria.
milodon:
AndrewG:
A backdoor corridor of fuel in black 1000litre IBC tanks loaded onto groupage tilts available RO/BG and beyond. Usually labelled up as distilled water or syrup/food stuffs of different kinds…Find it hard to believe unfortunately. I dare to presume that you’re not familiar with the border crossings involved, but a lorry carrying groupage out of Belarus(Russia, Ukraine etc) would be checked up to the point of unloading (been there done that at Kapikule/Kapitan Andreevo TR/BG border) as it is not exactly common for anything resembling groupage to come out of those countries. I once stood in line at the UA/PL border in Dorohusk with a gentleman heading to Schiphol airport from Kyiv empty, some 2000km as there is very little coming out of those countries.
You would need to bribe the customs officials at both sides and for what? A company buying bulk gets a price of around €.70 for fuel in Bg, and nobody gets to go to jail.
Up to you entirely what you want to believe but can assure you its going on and would not post this if it wasnt fact. And i am familiar with the border crossings, over past years ive done many in and out Belarus/Ukraine. As for groupage coming out of these countries much of it comes to us in Spain, its the very stuff we carry across to Portugal (high quartz granite/ biotite) once its processed. Iron castings and industrial machinery also comes via Belarus…along with cheap fuel…
We definitely have different definitions on what constitutes as groupage then 
My house is 200 kilometres from the Russian border where fuel is the same price as in Belarus and the only fuel that comes over the border is in the fuel tanks of the lorries.
Im guessing its all about cheap taxes for Stobart to open depot in Bulgaria.
You got to be a moron(excuse my language) to smuggle fuel from God knows where, when you can buy it in bulk for business use form Bulgaria at 0,68p/l eurodiesel. Thats excluding vat, as many businesses are vat exempt, even with tax the price is 0,82p/l. I dont see transport company smuggling diesel from Belarus on 0,70p.
On top of that there is Romanian refinery(Rom petrol) and Greek refinery(Hellenic petroleum) who are in EU and in close proximity from Bulgaria, don’t know their prices but I doubt they will be much different from the Bulgarian.
saksa-bg.com/en/wholesale/wholesale-fuels
Currency rate 1 GBP = 2,31 BGN
P.S. Apparently military jet kerosene is by special order. 
Dolph:
Im guessing its all about cheap taxes for Stobart to open depot in Bulgaria.
You got to be a moron(excuse my language) to smuggle fuel from God knows where, when you can buy it in bulk for business use form Bulgaria at 0,68p/l eurodiesel. Thats excluding vat, as many businesses are vat exempt, even with tax the price is 0,82p/l. I dont see transport company smuggling diesel from Belarus on 0,70p.
On top of that there is Romanian refinery(Rom petrol) and Greek refinery(Hellenic petroleum) who are in EU and in close proximity from Bulgaria, don’t know their prices but I doubt they will be much different from the Bulgarian.saksa-bg.com/en/wholesale/wholesale-fuels
Currency rate 1 GBP = 2,31 BGN
P.S. Apparently military jet kerosene is by special order.
Youre quoting GBP, im quoting Eur and if you read my previous post i said BG/RO and ‘beyond’, places where diesel price is a lot higher and this ‘sells’ for a max of 0.55eur also not uneconomical to carry as its on diminishing groupage loads to Hungary where trailers are reloaded for Spain.
Ypure welcome to dismiss it and being a forum everyone is entitled to an opinion /view but ive seen first hand the IBC’s unloaded and know full well their origin. This ismt exactly done to make a profit on fuel per se rather its done as a rate reducer and the figure of 0.55eur is the approx figure per litre the reduction is based on…
Well the prices Dolph quoted are on par with what i discovered and also in €. What I still have a problem with is getting through at least three customs with a load that contains tons of undeclared fuel. It can certainly be done, with a lot of luck or a lot of backhanders, but for what? In the end the profit margin would be a couple of thousand € max for a trip and you have a pretty good chance of seeing the insides of an eastern-european jail.
There is always the possibility of a truck with big tanks returning from Belarus, changing trailers and heading back without said fuel, but the last time I ran that way Poland allowed 200litres of fuel when coming from outside the EU and even without that it’s a long way from Brest to Bucharest…