take it 7.5k for insurance is euro cover at fully comp?
paul b:
take it 7.5k for insurance is euro cover at fully comp?
and not including italy too which for some strange reason is still considered by insurance companies to be a high risk, strange really because i would have put the uk in the high risk bracket, 7 years doing italy and never had so much as a ■■■■■ in the tilt cover - i’ve lost count of the amount of tilt repairs and curtain repairs i’ve had to have done here in the uk and some were done in the yard over a weekend too.
i think you need to shop around , i got my insurace for £5000 all in , for spain ,
yes trailer is a euroliner and not new
i can do spain for £100 per week quite easilly being a tight yorkshire git i found ways round the expensive ones 
paul the train is not the way to go to spain as it adds too much time to your route , the best way is portsmouth to caen or le havre , or better still to santander or bilbao but thats just too much money , but then again it keeps you out of france 
johnny:
i know several owner operators working on 90 day payment terms for a massive european company with yellow trucks that keep taking over more and more companies, one of them has told me that if he were to quit now and wait for his money it would equate to over 85k he is owed for 2 trucks.he was down to his last few grand when he got his first paycheck from the big company running yellow trucks and was in the office on a daily basis at the time begging for what was owed or at least some of it and all the time they were asking if he would put more trucks in.
this all happened several months ago and my mate is now secure - he gets his payments on a regular basis now but they still hold about 85k of his cash flow.
the bigger the company the harder the terms and the longer they take to pass back what they owe.
So that must mean that the guy hasnt been paid for at least 20 weeks!!! nearly 5 months. How stupid. Not only is he losing interest on his money , he is very unlikely to get it back. and he definitely wont if they go bump
who is he company in yellow I can only think of a few DHL/Gondrand/Danzas.
johnny:
… 7 years doing italy and never had so much as a ■■■■■ in the tilt cover …
…I used to use one of the trailer wheels!!!
Sorry…can I say that? 
having just returned from a trip to italy i can confirm that it’s damned expensive.
first drop was turin and i had a little bit of haz on so i decided that swiss was not a good option.
but i needed to take advantage of the cheaper fuel in lux so travelled from dunkirk to lux and put 640 litres of diesel in at a cost of 91euro cent per litre incl vat.
i then travelled via metz/nancy/langres/dijon to macon the tolls so far were 67euro.
macon was a big mistake, it used to be 24 hour but the retaurant was closed when i got there 11pm and then at 6 am it was open but the kitchen wasn’t doing any cooking at all until 1pm.
the car park had over a dozen irish registered gypsy cars and caravans in it taking up a large corner plot of the truck park.
i then travelled to the frejus at a cost of 81euro.
due to the haz on the trailer i had to wait for an ■■■■■■ along with several other haz loads and a couple of wide loads, the cost for frejus is 240euro but because i had haz on it was 319euro.
i then went to my first delivery in turin and onto carisio and this cost 33.50 euro.
so far i have spent 500.50 euro or £368 with the exchange rate at 1.36 on the norfolk line boat.
next day i did my 2nd and 3rd delivery and finished back at carisio.
i did my collection on friday and ran to como so i could transit swiss.
i had to get t forms made up and then the swiss road tolls went onto the dkv card.
without the swiss tax i have so far spent 606.30 euro’s.
£446
i think the swiss tax is about £50 from como to basel/bale so we can safely say it’s cost £500 to go to italy and back in toll charges and tunnel costs.
an expensive trip to be doing, the first and the last i might add.
johnny:
i think the swiss tax is about £50 from como to basel/bal
Closer to twice that amount these days Johhny, it makes the Maut look cheap. 
Coffeeholic:
johnny:
i think the swiss tax is about £50 from como to basel/balCloser to twice that amount these days Johhny, it makes the Maut look cheap.
wow!!!
thats expensive, as i used dkv card it doesn’t show you what the cost is, it just dumps it onto the card, i suppose it still works out cheaper than one of the tunnels and the french tolls.
a lot different to the old days when you bought your tax per day and got a discount if you bought a few days at a time.
i was surprised when i got to weil am rhein that you now have to enter a parking zone and collect a ticket before proceeding to the border, i was also surprised how easy it all is now and there seems to have been a change in attitudes from some of the border personnel, they seem nicer now and more keen to speak english than they used to be.
well thats it ,the o licence arrived yesterday morning and i pick up the truck on tuesday , 2/05/06 , pick up trailer on wednesday , load and go to spain friday 
so is it a euro a mile and whats french for mars bar ?
best of luck mate!
porkifer:
well thats it ,the o licence arrived yesterday morning and i pick up the truck on tuesday , 2/05/06 , pick up trailer on wednesday , load and go to spain friday
so is it a euro a mile and whats french for mars bar ?
Good luck, what truck / trailer did you get and who you on for ?
porkifer; What truck did you settle for…? I used to drive a brand new FH 12 XL for a Swiss outfit in the French speaking part. I also had my own truck on Swiss plates.I have done Scandinavia , Morrocco, Romania ,Greece,Spain, Portugal & the rest of Europe, tramping for years.I have worked for Swiss, Dutch & Italian firms as an employed driver. I speak German Spanish & French. I recently did a stint with a UK container coy. just around the UK. For conditions equipment & pay it beat ALL the international work hands down. If you are going OD int. for the craick , I wish you well. But when the novelty wears off /or the people you sub from go bust you will kill for the chance to sub or work for a Uk container outfit. I take offence from your remarks about container drivers. On this talk board we are all drivers & you never know who you are talking to… I am not the only old hand that worked out that effort for paycheck ,containers rule. I only did international in the old days because it paid more. Those days are over for UK plates as you will probably find out. No OD can run a truck as a hobby. But I will agree that UK work is deadly boring.
& as for int. ODs being members of MENSA there was one guy landed at Zeebrugge on route for Swiss via Lux. He paid everything cash. He went into the Total & bought a set of fancy air horns which meant he couldnt afford to put diesel in until he got to Lux. Otherside of Brussels he ran out of diesel. The same one was showing a new driver how the job went & showed him how to fill up in Belgian roadworks at night time. He pulled up next to a digger & told the newbie to dip the tank with the electric marine pump he had fitted .While he stayed in the cab & made a cup of tea. Job done, they drank the tea then set off for Swiss. 5ks down the road the truck ran out of diesel . The newbie had filled up the digger from the truck tank. My point is that drivers have never been accused of being bright but we dont slag each other off.
Porki,
From one Yorkshireman to another, I wish you the best of luck. Let us know how it all goes.
Porki. From one truckdriver to another keep your 40k in your pocket & don`t invest in anything with wheels.
Congratulations mate .
Hope mine comes through soon!!
harry , i am not slagging anyone off with my sig but it must hit a nerve , and if you have done what you claim and i have no doubt you have then dont you think you have just shown what it is most int drivers dont like about uk drivers , you have done more miles in that post than i have done in my life .
iam not going into this lightly as a few people on here know , i have been an artic driver for 25 years now and this is my second stint at being an o/d as it suits me at the moment and the person i am subbing for i have every confidence in , as for wanting to come back and do containers i would rather stick pins in my eyes , i have tried it and my best mate works for one of the bigger container firms ,
i am not doing this to make a fortune but to make a good enough living for me and my family ,
as for 40 grand , its not cost ought like that to set up !!
and just to clear anther point up , i will be paid on return , so about 7 days from putting in invoice
thanks to everybody else for the congrats
porkifer; If driving as OD int. keeps you sane then I know where youre coming from. As for me I wasnt bragging, I was complaining that with all my knowledge I made more on UK containers than I did spending months away at a time. Point being that you dont have to be thick to drive a truck. ( But it helps ) You still havent told us which truck you went for.
PS. I thought you were going for a deal with something like 4 months wait before your money came in…
Anyway, stretch your legs & breath some fresh air on the continent. You have the whole summer to make some money. Wish you all the luck.
thanks for that harry ,
i have bought a renault magnun and a sliding roof 4m trailer ,
i am going to do the job i have done for about 12 yrs now altho always working for some one else and i will be home every 8-9 days , i know what you are saying about earning more money doing uk work . one of the best paying jobs i ever had was working afters for a local firm some times in the office sometimes doing a local run but it drove me round the bend so i figure i would rather keep my sanity and easy going nature that i have now and poss earn a little less than be driven into an early grave by pressure and all the back biting and general nastiness that that sort of environment encourages
back to the truck , i didnt settle on the magnum because it is the best truck although i do like them , i chose that because it was the best deal and back up i could get and the dealer really helped with everything not like the volvo dealer that was really off hand with me and did nothing to sell me a vehicle !
talk soon chris
porkifer; Well, as I said before. I know where you are coming from. I am taking time out now because I got nothing but depressions doing UK work. The money ,Truck & conditions were great . I got paid a good hourly rate to sit in traffic. But those grim old truckstops & the guys you worked with had no stories to tell. Dont get me wrong ,they were a good crowd but because most of them had never done the int. bit we didnt have a lot in common.I kept a low profile about my chequered carreer otherwise I would kinda stand out as the new bore on the block. In the nicest possible way they dont know what they missed ,when the going was good, that is. Social life on the road for the UK trucker ,as I said before is grim. I know a lot guys on here will be saying that I dont know where to park ,its insider knowledge. In Europe the truckstops are 90% good & you drop on to them the first trip. I dont want to upset the Uk boys because if you need help they are always there for you , but horses for courses`. And I hope you get a few hassle free months in to get you on your feet.