Has anybody thought of going to work in Poland and driving their trucks?
I’ve seen some pretty smart Polish trucks recently and if the demand for drivers is as high as I have read on TNUK, wages can’t be all bad.
You never know Orys, you could start an Agency importing drivers to Poland Haha.
Al
Eyup Wiggi have heard theres already krauts doing just that! As you know they’ll go anywhere for brass.
AlexWignall:
Has anybody thought of going to work in Poland and driving their trucks?I’ve seen some pretty smart Polish trucks recently and if the demand for drivers is as high as I have read on TNUK, wages can’t be all bad.
You never know Orys, you could start an Agency importing drivers to Poland Haha.
Al
Keep laughing.
Take home pay of 6000 PLN + per month (which is about 300 GBP per week) is nothing unreal in Poland at the moment. If I was a Brit who wanted to drive trucks and nothing was keeping me in Britain (no home, no family etc.) aI would be going already. I just quickly browsed job ads and polish equivalent of trucknet and basic pay usually starts from around 2200 and I know, that from the other things you should be doing at least another 2000 (the salary in Polish companies are usually made differently, you got some basic, then you are paid per day away (usually 100-150 zł) and sometimes you also have some %s from freight).
It might be slightly smaller income, compared to 327 quid per week in South West, but for a price of a burger in a greasy snax van you can have a decent meal in a roadside restaurant in Poland, so you would be propably much better off. And there will be easy accessible roadside restaurants, because in Poland facilities for Truckers are much better than in UK. (and it’s very common that if you draw over 300 l of diesel, you got your meal free - for 50 litres is usually a coffe).
The roads might be more challenging (to say the least, haha) but at least it’s not boring 
So keep laughing, and let’s dig this thread in 5 years from now and see who’ll be laughing then 
Thanks for the replies fellas,
I’m not really laughing at anyone, just being a bit cheeky… I actually think the lack of replies to this thread speaks volumes.
When I started driving in the nineties everybody I knew thought it was unthinkable to work for Eddie Stobart. I’ve read recently that there is a waiting list to get a start at ESL now.
I think an industrious driver who liked to travel would do very well at a Polish firm. As Shortwalk said, some Germans have already started working there. Somebody must be driving trucks around Europe.
Personally, if I didn’t have ties and didn’t enjoy my own job as much as I do, I would work in Norway simply because I like the place.
I must remember to check this thread in a few years time!
Nice to see you on TNUK again Shortwalk.
W
Orys is correct that the the Polish version of a MSA is a little different, this is a typical one the wife and I stopped at this week, around 7 pounds for 2 mains and drinks for the both of us, good value as it was freshly cooked. This is a posh one, but food wise the standards are the same, you will eat well anywhere, just the surroundings may differ. We are buying furniture which requires a few trips to Katowice, so the next time will be a shack type affair in some woods, next to the highway, it will be cheaper as the restaurant involves sitting outside, but the food will be as good. I just came back from the UK and stopped at a couple of UK MSA’s and really its insulting.
There seems to be a selection of driving jobs in the paper and online, certainly the international drivers get (for Poland) a good wage. I don’t work in Poland, I have a company here (sole trader) but work in Europe with band tours.
I like Poland as a whole, nice people, great food, very beautiful. I am married to a Pole, so we choose to be here rather than the UK.
I have not found Poland to be cheap, basics yes, but white goods, electrical, anything that might be considered a bit of a luxury is more expensive than the UK. We have been building a house for the past 5 years, the price of materials has more than doubled in that time, diesel was 3.5zł per litre this time last year, its 5.2 zł now. Like for like, I believe the cost of living is much higher here. My sister in law earns 250 pounds in her hand a month for working 5 days a week from 6.00 to 18.00.
As a company I pay 170 pounds a month Zus (national contributions) and have to do accounts every month, red tape here is mind numbing. I am an expert at standing in queues and know every public toilet in every government building in the Częstochowa region.
I lot of downsides to moving here, my honeymoon period is over, but I will stay here, the things that have long gone in the UK are still alive here, community spirit, respect for others are things i enjoy now, I have been able to build a house with my own money and today its 28 degrees C and i will take a bike ride in the forest behind out land, life is good on the whole.
If you where to consider moving here and looking for work, then you should take a cheap flight and stay a week, find a non tourist town and see if the food, locals, way of life suits, its unlikely you will find like an English quarter, in my region I am the only Englishman, just me and one Italian on the register.
Why not go to Poland, or any other country in europe if you can get a good job, good standard of living and are happy to intigrate with the locals. I lived and worked in Holland, Belguim and west Germany before the UK was in the EU, and found it was better if you forget you are british and try to be like the locals, learn the language, eat the same food at the same places etc.
Anyone who still believes that the UK is “better” than the rest of europe, or the world, needs to take off those rose tinted specks, My wife is russian, she lived for most of her life in the Soviet Union, with spells in east germany and Czechoslovakia, well i can tell you, her opinion of the UK has gone down hill fast after living here. We talk a good talk, we have the potential to do everything fantastically, yet we seem to fail at it all the time. it is embaressing for me sometimes to “big up” the UK systems, only for them to let us down.
Look at our MSA’s for example, compared to most of europe we are like a third world country. look at our transport system too.I tried to buy a monthly season ticket for my wife on our local bus service, you can’t get it from the driver, and its a lot cheaper on the internet. First you have to down load some app to your smart phone, ok did that, then you buy online and they send you an “mticket” to your mobile. it never arrived. i called them, can you email me the ticket? No we will post it to you. But the ticket starts tomorrow and it says 5 days for postal tickets, can you change the start date? No. I have hundreds of examples where we, in this country, try to be efficient, and fail.
Recently i went to Estonia for a meeting. I flew with Czech airlines via Prague, Everything was on time. I took a bus from Tallinn to Parnu, some 120 kms, there and back the bus was on time at every stop right on the minute, my return journey was via prague and every connection was on time. I got back to Birmingham on a sunday morning to find that the trains to Bicester were on a bus replacement service due to engineering, the bus arrived at the airport, where the driver spent 10 minutes chatting up the young ■■■■■■■ the ticket desk, we left 15 minutes late, to arrive at sollihull station 5 minutes after the train had left, leaving a 25 minute wait for the next one. I love British airways, I fly with them as much as possible, because they can be as cheap if not cheaper than ripoffyan air or squeezyjet, and the service is much better, but how many times am i delayed in foreign airports waiting for the BA flight to board. I fly Rossiya, the russian airline. it’s service is crap, your food is thrown at you, if your lucky enough to get some and the stafff are generally surly. however they are cheaper than BA and they are nealy always on time!
So, would I go to poland to work? yes, if i could keep my standard of living on a Polish wage.
Phew, that explains why the replies have been so slow. I didn’t expect such indepth answers.
Personally I’m comfortable in the UK and I like it here (In spite of its faults). I’ve lived and worked abroad before and I would do it again if I felt like it.
The £327 a week topic made me think of this thread. I think sometimes that drivers are too busy enjoying moaning to see the possible oppertunities that might arise.
Polands economic star is rising (for whatever reason) wouldn’t it be good to get in early and benifit from it?
W
All countries have pro’s and con’s, I lived in Denmark for 10 years, I would say they have it as close to how it should be as I have come across, even so its not perfect. Personally I couldn’t be happy living in the UK anymore and thats not because its a terrible place, just doesn’t tick the right boxes anymore. Life is harder for me here in Poland, everyday tasks are a little harder, take a little longer, I live like a Pole, because there is not another way, thankfully that appeals to me, the benefits outweigh the cons in my case, I couldn’t really say to anyone that Poland is a good place to come to and live though.
Hundreds of thousands of Poles cant be wrong…and they cant live in Poland either…thats why theyve chosen to live in the UK, or Germany, or wherever. If your looking to work in Poland cos theyve got nice trucks..then your a sad mother theyve got nice trucks cos wer`e paying for them via our contributions to the eu…every new member to the eu gets huge discounts to renew their ageing transport, look at east germany, czech, hungary, rumo, bulg etc etc…truck manufacturers are fighting to get their trucks across borders, and the incentive was for the companies to get interest free loans, and nothing to pay till doomsday. Weve got nice trucks in the uk as well, and we got good wages, and if you cant drive one of them, or earn a living, then its time you studied for something else. sorry, but its a fact.
Hello mate,
I don’t know how you think that I’m a student? I studied for my Killicks Fleetboard in '91 does that count?
I’ve been driving trucks in the UK and Europe since '94 and I do not think that I’m an exception but I have made a good living and I still enjoy my work.
One of the reasons I have made the most of my career and gained a lot from it, is that I make my own mind up and do not just follow the general consensus of opinion like some drivers.
If you read some of the other posts in this thread you will see that some other people have lived in Poland and have enjoyed doing so.
Reading between the lines though, it looks to me that conditions are no better or worse than they are for an ordinary working person in the UK.
I’m glad that I have started this topic and I’ve enjoyed reading all the well thought out and reasoned replies so far, including yours. I wonder if any else had got any opinions about ‘Taking Poles to Newcastle’?
W
truckyboy:
Hundreds of thousands of Poles cant be wrong…and they cant live in Poland either…thats why theyve chosen to live in the UK, or Germany, or wherever. If your looking to work in Poland cos theyve got nice trucks..then your a sadmothertheyve got nice trucks cos wer`e paying for them via our contributions to the eu…every new member to the eu gets huge discounts to renew their ageing transport, look at east germany, czech, hungary, rumo, bulg etc etc…truck manufacturers are fighting to get their trucks across borders, and the incentive was for the companies to get interest free loans, and nothing to pay till doomsday. Weve got nice trucks in the uk as well, and we got good wages, and if you cant drive one of them, or earn a living, then its time you studied for something else. sorry, but its a fact.
■■■■, how is that I never knew about this possibility to buy trucks without paying anything, uising only British contributions to the EU? If I knew, I would have already a fleet of few hundreds and I would chasing Eddie Stobart out of business… 
Ah, it’s not true, it’s just another truckNET myth about Poland. What the shame… 
I’ve met a few spanish drivers recently mainly from valencia and murcia who were driving polish trucks.
when i asked them what it was like they all said they were good companies to work for and seeing as poland entered the EU earlier than some other countries the wages have risen over the years.
they all said that they were better paid by the polish companies than they could get from their previous employers because they had recruited bulgarian and romanian drivers who are at a different stage of EU membership and work for a lot less.
its a free movement and free economy thing so it may happen for UK drivers in time.
here, here ^^^^^ 
truckyboy:
Hundreds of thousands of Poles cant be wrong…and they cant live in Poland either…thats why theyve chosen to live in the UK, or Germany, or wherever. If your looking to work in Poland cos theyve got nice trucks..then your a sadmothertheyve got nice trucks cos wer`e paying for them via our contributions to the eu…every new member to the eu gets huge discounts to renew their ageing transport, look at east germany, czech, hungary, rumo, bulg etc etc…truck manufacturers are fighting to get their trucks across borders, and the incentive was for the companies to get interest free loans, and nothing to pay till doomsday. Weve got nice trucks in the uk as well, and we got good wages, and if you cant drive one of them, or earn a living, then its time you studied for something else. sorry, but its a fact.
Where on earth have you got all that load of [zb]ocks from? And for your information, the rebuilt transport infrastructure in the former East Germany, was NOT built with UK contributions, but by a specific German tax on all west Germans, which they are still paying today!
In contrast, the UK is simply stagnating and as a consequence is stuffed in my opinion. In the medium to long term, the quality of life here will keep deteriorating even more than it has in the last ten years…
I’ve lived and worked in Germany and if I wasn’t attached to my lovely partner who can’t leave here, I’d be back over there in a flash! But then I speak German and I’m happy to work efficiently without constantly whinging. (Which seems to be the default for many British people.)
welshboyinspain:
I’ve met a few spanish drivers recently mainly from valencia and murcia who were driving polish trucks.
when i asked them what it was like they all said they were good companies to work for and seeing as poland entered the EU earlier than some other countries the wages have risen over the years.
they all said that they were better paid by the polish companies than they could get from their previous employers because they had recruited bulgarian and romanian drivers who are at a different stage of EU membership and work for a lot less.
its a free movement and free economy thing so it may happen for UK drivers in time.
There you go, I might not be so far off the mark after all…
Was stuck in traffic on the M40 yesterday and struck up a convo with the driver in the truck next to me.
It was a British driver in a Czech unit and trailer. Says he pulls one trailer a fortnight back to base in Czechoslovakia and the rest of the time he does trailer swaps with other drivers at the ports and then delivers their stuff around the UK.
He said money was about the same as UK wages for Euro work and the kit was good ( 2 year old Gobstopper XL) and well looked after.
Seemed a happy enough chap anyway.
Is the FH a light blue hi~cube version? If it is I’ve seen him near our depot in Leyland.
I noticed a Union Jack painted on the reverse side of his unused ADR plate. I’ve noticed a few Brits who drive foreign trucks do this.
It was this truck that gave me the germ of an idea for this thread in the first place.
W
Wasn’t a blue one, was a sort of Burnt Orange all over, with trailer painted the same, no signwriting or anything, he had union jack’s all over his cab interior though so hard to miss the fact he’s a brit!
He did mention they had about 12 trucks running all over the UK with non Czech drivers though so could be another one from the same firm.
I really like the way this thread is going I don’t even need to give you any examples, you do it yourself
orys:
I really like the way this thread is going
I admit that I thought I would of got a lot more replies like Truckyboys.
It goes to show that the members on TNUK can be fairly open minded. You might be able to start that Agency sooner than you think Orys.
W