welshboyinspain:
just a question to homerfaber
have you spoken to a steel trans driver? 2000 a month is beyond their wildest dreams, if that were so they wouldn’t all be driving fridges in spain for 32 euros a day!!
and have you had your boss ask you to take a 50% paycut or lose your job to a flipflop and sock wearer? if you have you know how i feel if not don’t worry it won’t be long the turks are coming!!!
This is how EU expansionism works. All our taxes rise to pay for ever increasing demands from the EU contributions committee. Most of which goes towards rebuilding the infrastructure of newly joined East Euro states. At the same time, East European companies are undercutting our rates and East Europeans are migrating in their MILLIONS towards the Western countries undercutting our wages. Which in turn increases our taxes in order to pay for the increased unemployment mass migration creates.
Wheel Nut:
I have seen the trucks the report says are dangerous, I disagree, many are well looked after, many drivers are proud of them, some drivers take pride in their work. A bit like the UK truck parc that!
In fact if you were to send most of the UK truck park on a 6000 mile round trip for a few weeks then their trucks would probably have the same faults when they came back. Supposing of course that their satnav’s got them back
Kent Police have created a Commercial Vehicle Unit but this is only a team of two officers - and they were taken from the regular Traffic Patrol strength anyway. Robbing Peter to pay Paul! I love the job I do but I wish we could go back and have greater numbers on our teams. Unfortunately Government initiatives such as PCSOs and HATOs (motorway equivalents) are designed to save money but policing presence and skills are being lost as a result.
James Galbraith, Hildenborough, Kent
Just to stir a new argument up
This is one of the reader comments on the BBC story about VOSA
I do nearly all of my work out of Ports…so I dont even know what the story is about■■? In regards to the above comment from ‘concerned’ of Kent…Police never had the skills to deal with Trucks…so wheres the skill loss there■■? It was always specialised and very very few officers were taught anything about Transport Legislation, tachos etc etc.
Just on the ports side of things, I am lead to believe that VOSA are being forced not to use some ports internally as it may be influencing traffic to use other ports, particularly on the West coast. Yes being tugged by VOSA means time taken up, but I reckon a few are avoiding them for other reasons!
HomoFaber: "The Commons Transport Committee said non-compliance among overseas vehicles was unacceptably high. Nearly 47% of foreign vehicles stopped were found to have dangerous defects, compared with 37.5% for UK vehicles"
Right, is 37.5% is “acceptably high non-compliance” then?
Statements like this are laughable. Well, actually not. They’re examples of tragic incompetence and impotence.
This is what cracks me up whenever there is a purge on truck/coaches/taxis etc the headlines read “Of the 100 vehicles stopped 90 had defects”, but when you look “indepth” it may be a sidelight out or a driver being 2 mins short on a break etc,etc, as wheelnut say’s it’s all headlines to provoke debate/abuse.
What you have to remember all enforcement agencies etc are into job justification and targets. Nothing more more nothing less. Let’s see one of the VOSA guys come on and try and defend it.
I was chatting to one of the VOSA girls the other year who admitted mistakenly joined VOSA in the belief she was joining an organisation which promoted road safety and education, but was very disillisioned to find above all it is about the above and enforcement . Not education and safety followed up by enforcement.
HomoFaber: "The Commons Transport Committee said non-compliance among overseas vehicles was unacceptably high. Nearly 47% of foreign vehicles stopped were found to have dangerous defects, compared with 37.5% for UK vehicles"
Right, is 37.5% is “acceptably high non-compliance” then?
Statements like this are laughable. Well, actually not. They’re examples of tragic incompetence and impotence.
This is what cracks me up whenever there is a purge on truck/coaches/taxis etc the headlines read “Of the 100 vehicles stopped 90 had defects”, but when you look “indepth” it may be a sidelight out or a driver being 2 mins short on a break etc,etc, as wheelnut say’s it’s all headlines to provoke debate/abuse.
What you have to remember all enforcement agencies etc are into job justification and targets. Nothing more more nothing less. Let’s see one of the VOSA guys come on and try and defend it.
I was chatting to one of the VOSA girls the other year who admitted mistakenly joined VOSA in the belief she was joining an organisation which promoted road safety and education, but was very disillisioned to find above all it is about the above and enforcement . Not education and safety followed up by enforcement.
Fair point but what would happen without targets? Nobody ever thinks that way.
Also as for defending the percentages, where do you draw the line?
Vosa are not allowed into Birkenhead or Liverpool docks at present. Makes me laugh they where emphasising the words dangerous,foreign and 40 percent. The authorities already have plenty of power to stop them, infact all they have stopped in the lasr 18 months seems to be foreign trucks.
zippy!:
Fair point but what would happen without targets? Nobody ever thinks that way.
It would allow those on the job to choose between what was relevant and important, as to what was on any government target.
zippy:
Also as for defending the percentages, where do you draw the line?
Again what is and isn’t dangerous. What’s relevant.
Writing up a driver for not noticing a rear side light has blown, or his number plate has fell off since he checked thirty min’s ago, isn’t anything to suggest it’s dangerous but looks good for anyone throwing statics around.
Including minor statistics is designed to get the people to support more oppressive laws. If the public is led to belive 50% of trucks are death traps, we can expect bigger government quangos.
This could be the latest addition to the government hate campaigns. We have already had the hate speeding campaign, we’re almost completely through the hate smokers and binge drinker campaigns. These statistics could be the latest phase of the hate truckers campaign.
The way this country is going, it will soon be a criminal offence to stand in your garden with a cigarette in your hand or standing in your kitchen window drinking a can of larger.
Mike-C:
Vosa are not allowed into Birkenhead or Liverpool docks at present. Makes me laugh they where emphasising the words dangerous,foreign and 40 percent. The authorities already have plenty of power to stop them, infact all they have stopped in the lasr 18 months seems to be foreign trucks.
just a quick note here mike, av seen vosa in seaforth on a few occasions am sure of it, isnt that the vosa checkpoint facing the port police station ■■
to be fair like i hav’nt seen it open 4 a while like
speedyguy:
Let’s see one of the VOSA guys come on and try and defend it.
I was chatting to one of the VOSA girls the other year who admitted mistakenly joined VOSA in the belief she was joining an organisation which promoted road safety and education, but was very disillisioned to find above all it is about the above and enforcement . Not education and safety followed up by enforcement.
I think the VOSA guy came on and mentioned it earlier. He said he doesn’t know what the story is about Neither do I. VOSA go where they want, and if they cannot enter the port area, they can & do wait outside. The cowboys cannot stay in the port area either as the parking has been sold off to WH Smith, Burger king and KFC
I am interested in the “Transport Select Committee”. Is it another government group headed by Peter Mandelson to relieve the pressure over his mate Muammar and Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi?
Wheel Nut:
I think the VOSA guy came on and mentioned it earlier. He said he doesn’t know what the story is about Neither do I. VOSA go where they want, and if they cannot enter ?
I have spoken to different people and the hauliers using B/HEAD/Wirral entry ports were trying to put pressure on the port authorities to deter/stop VOSA from using their land or they would take their trade elsewhere.
2 points VOSA will just park outside and wait for them, and why sail into the wirral it’s not exactly your nearest port from europe or is it just a specific country where the trucks are coming from on that side of the country .
I can see a block being put on it soon by the EU wombats , as "it’s racist innit and harrassment and a breach of european free trade and we’re only passing through "
Love the final line ’ Wether these beasts of the road are British or foreign is less important than whether they should be on the road at all’. Just pass me the brick wall.
On the subject of the failure rate of British hauliers, am I correct in saying that VOSA now use the ORCAS (traffic light system) when they pull vehicles for a roadside check, targetting those with a higher previous non-compliance rate. Would that therefore not mean that the 37.5% would not be representative of the whole UK fleet but more of a narrow band of regularly non-compliant hauliers?
One that I find amusing is EVERYONE claims the Irish are known for there fast driving, fast trucks and never running legal YET theres no VOSA FULL TIME at either the Cairnryan or Stranraer port, cant be that bad then eh? Its not to say there never there but it seems as if other ports mentioned in this thread have a VOSA station permanently there wether it be in or outside the port.
milodon, welshboy: clean and fit is not neccessarily the same thing
welshboy: I’m sorry to hear you were forced to leave your country in such a way. My boss in SK told me “…there is not enough funding available to keep current headcount. You have some unique skills and experiences, you’ll find new position quickly and easily”. Well, I had no intentions of renewing my contract, but if you want to fire me all the better - I have to be given redundancy pay.
So here I am, in the UK. After 3yrs I was given a choice: 10% paycut Jun to Dec, 3wks unpaid leave in the same period, same amount of work or “clear your locker”. You can guess which I chose. Last week my employer anounced “sound profit he was able to generate in this challenging economic climate” - great, at least I know what I contribute to. I’ve also got many close relatives fired when a foreign investor, having used all government provided benefits, packed up the business and moved further east. I still think business greed is to be blamed rather than the commoners to the east of me.
Whatever.
Are we talking the same Steel Trans? From Kosice, SK, dark blue Scanias and Volvos, few Actroses, big grey-blue lettering on sides. Some trailers have the lettering in azbuka on one side.
Honestly, I have never heard of SK drivers tramping EU for 3 months - apart from those working for Kralowetz in its heydays. Neither I heard of a SK haulier sending drivers abroad by plane. Some drivers do fly to countries their companies are based in - NL, B, S - but minibuses and cars are far more common.
Now, SK law sets meal allowance for Spain to 42€/day. If a Slovak pulls fridges in Spain for 32€/day then he’s either not telling complete story or struggles with basic math and common sense.
george3: that elected representatives failed to do what they had promises is not a fault of the Easterners, is it?
Most of the EU money goes into agriculture and fishing subsidies (~60%). “Infrastructure rebuilding” does not appear in the EU budget. There’s only “local development” or something like that and that is tiny amount (compared to others). Infrastructure is alway co-financed by country in question, EBRD or EU cohesion fund.
I have not heard of a road haulier receiving some kind of EU subsidy - if you have, name him, give me an example. I think such a thing is not even possible. I only know of French, Italian and Dutch govt subsidies to their own hauliers.
Anyway… pointless argument really… perhaps exactly what the report intended
Apart from the Times Online and the BBC sites, we have the haulage industries representatives doing the governments job for them too.
It went on to say that foreign trucks are eight times more likely to be involved in an accident that ends with a serious injury or death, and that they are three times more likely to be breaking haulage rules.
Which translates to the Turkish judicial system, “If you were not here it would never have happened”
or.
“Let’s be clear. We are not being xenophobic about this, nor are we tarring all drivers and all hauliers from abroad with the same brush. The report comes against a background in which there has been a complete imbalance in enforcement between UK and foreign trucks.”
which translates to, “some of my best friends are etcetera, etcetera”
Of course the green loonie party come out and call for all the supermarket and bread deliveries to go by train, the squashed hedgehog brigade are worried about bully boy tactics by 74 tonne juggernauticals.
I even heard a bloke on the radio complaining about a foreign truck driver. This plank said the pole had stopped on the motorway because of an accident or incident. plankton then ran up his arse and blamed the truck
HomoFaber: "The Commons Transport Committee said non-compliance among overseas vehicles was unacceptably high. Nearly 47% of foreign vehicles stopped were found to have dangerous defects, compared with 37.5% for UK vehicles"
Right, is 37.5% is “acceptably high non-compliance” then?
Statements like this are laughable. Well, actually not. They’re examples of tragic incompetence and impotence.
This is what cracks me up whenever there is a purge on truck/coaches/taxis etc the headlines read “Of the 100 vehicles stopped 90 had defects”, but when you look “indepth” it may be a sidelight out or a driver being 2 mins short on a break etc,etc, as wheelnut say’s it’s all headlines to provoke debate/abuse.
What you have to remember all enforcement agencies etc are into job justification and targets. Nothing more more nothing less. Let’s see one of the VOSA guys come on and try and defend it.
I was chatting to one of the VOSA girls the other year who admitted mistakenly joined VOSA in the belief she was joining an organisation which promoted road safety and education, but was very disillisioned to find above all it is about the above and enforcement . Not education and safety followed up by enforcement.
Then she was very unfortunate in who she was working with. Yes we have targets…what job doesnt…but it is about road safety and education no matter what you think. What would actually happen if we were not around to enforce legislation? There are times when certain people dont want to be educated and then we enforce…its simple. I do not have to justify my job as I know that I can make a difference…if thats saving even one life throughout my entire career then job done.
Your remark about the indepth look is as spurious as the original remark. How do you know that 90 of those defects were not insignificant?? Ive already seen stuff that would make your hair curl with the thought that such dangerous vehicles are travelling right behind you…