Why do some drivers only like Euro work? Is it because you just drive a lot on long distance trunk routes and do little else and don’t have to mix with many people or bother to do much else except sleep and drive or is it not like that? Maybe you do multi drops and speak to all different people in different languages , and euro traffic jams are better? Whats the crack?
I’ve never done regular Euro work as such, but i have been over the water with a variety of vehicles over the years & been with friends with artics in the 80’s & 90’s.
I’m gonna make an educated guess at some of the reasons you will get from the guys (girls?) who do it. [maybe this should have been in the Euro driver’s forum for maximum exposure?].
- Generally less hassle.
- Less traffic
- Money used to be better.
- Can (could?) top up wages with duty free perks.
- Fantastic scenery.
- The general attitude towards drivers from all is much better than in the UK. It is more understood they do a vital job.
- Lots of sunshine in summer.
Others will be along soon to agree/disagree with those & add lots more.
Ive never done Euro work but would love too… The appeal to me would be to add another “I HAVE DONE THIS” to my book… Going to diff countries and visiting/seeing diff things makes the job easier and more pleasant etc… Only thing that puts me off though is at these ridiculous fines some countries seem to hand out compared to the UK…
Mike-C:
Why do some drivers only like Euro work? Is it because you just drive a lot on long distance trunk routes and do little else and don’t have to mix with many people or bother to do much else except sleep and drive or is it not like that? Maybe you do multi drops and speak to all different people in different languages , and euro traffic jams are better? Whats the crack?
I could ask the same of you Mike. Why do you sit in an office all day while claiming on here to drive a truck? Is it because your boring and only trained to tick boxes? Or is it you don’t like to work too many hours away from your gardening?
I prefer to do Europe because it’s a darn site more adventurous. The traffic jams are fewer, the traffic less. More, many many more and better quality stopping places. You can organise your day easier. It’s possible to even have time to stop for a ■■■■, one that includes even walking to the proper facilities. More sun, more mountains. Better nights out.
Mike-C:
Why do some drivers only like Euro work? Is it because you just drive a lot on long distance trunk routes and do little else and don’t have to mix with many people or bother to do much else except sleep and drive
Yep, all of those reasons.
Mike-C:
or is it not like that?
No, that’s pretty much it.
Mike-C:
Maybe you do multi drops
Not these days but I used to.
Mike-C:
and speak to all different people in different languages
I try my best with varying degrees of success depending on the language in question.
Mike-C:
and euro traffic jams are better?
Nah, a traffic jam is a traffic jam regardless of location.
It’s dead easy, very little hassle and you get to do a bit of sightseeing now and again.
enit?:
Mike-C:
Why do some drivers only like Euro work? Is it because you just drive a lot on long distance trunk routes and do little else and don’t have to mix with many people or bother to do much else except sleep and drive or is it not like that? Maybe you do multi drops and speak to all different people in different languages , and euro traffic jams are better? Whats the crack?I could ask the same of you Mike. Why do you sit in an office all day while claiming on here to drive a truck? Is it because your boring and only trained to tick boxes? Or is it you don’t like to work too many hours away from your gardening?
I prefer to do Europe because it’s a darn site more adventurous. The traffic jams are fewer, the traffic less. More, many many more and better quality stopping places. You can organise your day easier. It’s possible to even have time to stop for a ■■■■, one that includes even walking to the proper facilities. More sun, more mountains. Better nights out.
Have to agree with that. Generally though the drivers and loading staff are not so uptight and antisocial, even in a different language you can tell jokes, hold a conversation, get ■■■■■■ and be made very welcome in bars, clubs and restaurants. Look at all the xenophobic remarks on the forums and the ones who make them have generally only ever been to Benidorm for a fortnight in the high season.
ive not done much euro work, but i like the sense ofadventure and i like travelling.
Personally its because I was a lazy sod, I enjoyed the driving, seeing new sights and going to new places, the drive is what it was all about not the arrival, that for me is the fun part of the job, I hate getting of my arse loading unloading or waiting about
A nice 2-3 day run knowing you have 13 hours each day in which to do 9 or 10 hours driving and nothing else, plenty of time for breaks when you want, to stop and admire a nice bit of scenery, unhurried, unstressed. for me it was simply all about that.
For me it is the double life, I have a life at home with my wife, then another one away around Europe, nights out eating different foods, weekends on beaches, in new Cities etc sight seeing, and until the £ collapsed against the Euro my money went a lot further than in the UK.
There is a bit of “we don’t like the French” among the continental drivers, but to be honest I even enjoy France, I can pull into a small town or even a village and there will be somewhere for me to park the truck, near somewhere to eat and quite often get a shower, and I am treated like a normal human being, none of that “we don’t want trucks here” rubbish you find in the UK.
I have to work hard through the week sometimes (removals) but then other times it can be nearly all driving.
I do look forward to getting home at the end of a trip though. 
For me its the scenery, weather (further south anyway), quality stops, less jams and everydays an adventure…
Comparitively speaking when i hit the UK it just seems doom and gloom 
This year I will be mainly driving in Europe because I lives 'ere 
Got to agree with the other guys:
Less hassle than driving in the UK.
Generally less traffic, except of course in the big cities.
FREE PARKING at motorway service stations and clampers are unheard of.
Facilities for truck drivers light years ahead of Blighty, even Poland leaves the UK standing these days:
orys:
But what’s the positive cultural shock - it’s truckstops.Just after German border in Swiecko on that stretch of A class road (national 2) between Germany and motorway A2, they are in every single village, and they are brilliant. I stopped in Mostki in place called Las Vegas. Huge choice of food, and I we both enjoyed really good dinner for less than four quids. It was about 4am and restaurant was fairly busy… There is a supermarket, when you can buy everything, but they hadn’t any motoring stuff, so when I asked for screenwash, I was sent to the other edge of lorry park to a “wee shop”. Wee shop is a huge hangar, when I think two artics would be able to make circles at the same time. They have bloody everything there - parts to every lorry, CB, all trucking stuff, DVDs, TVs, kitchen, they fix curtains, they do electrics, they do everything and if you lost your GB, French or even Kazakhstan Badge, you can buy it there.
The challenge of going to a new country where you can’t speak the language and still get to your destination (pre sat nav days) and get the job done is enormously satisfying.
Also being left to your own devices if it goes pear shaped certainly keeps things interesting.
Whilst not detracting from the British countryside, the variety and scale of different scenery that you can experience over here is amazing. Add to that the stunning architecture of some of the bridges and the huge engineering feats to produce some amazing tunnels contributes to making driving in Europe an always interesting experience.
In the UK, drive for more than a few miles in any direction and you fall off the end.
Over here, it is possible to drive for several days without having reached your destination.
Not everybody’s cup of tea, I know, but I love it 
The truckstops are amazing in france, everythings kept so clean and nice and theres always decent eating places.
Inselaffe:
This year I will be mainly driving in Europe because I lives 'ereGot to agree with the other guys:
Less hassle than driving in the UK.
Generally less traffic, except of course in the big cities.
FREE PARKING at motorway service stations and clampers are unheard of.
Facilities for truck drivers light years ahead of Blighty, even Poland leaves the UK standing these days:The challenge of going to a new country where you can’t speak the language and still get to your destination (pre sat nav days) and get the job done is enormously satisfying.
Also being left to your own devices if it goes pear shaped certainly keeps things interesting.Whilst not detracting from the British countryside, the variety and scale of different scenery that you can experience over here is amazing. Add to that the stunning architecture of some of the bridges and the huge engineering feats to produce some amazing tunnels contributes to making driving in Europe an always interesting experience.
In the UK, drive for more than a few miles in any direction and you fall off the end.
Over here, it is possible to drive for several days without having reached your destination.
Not everybody’s cup of tea, I know, but I love it
You mean like this?
I agree i much prefer european work.By the end of the 1st week doing uk i would be begging the boss to get me back over.
Over the last 16yrs i have met some great drivers from all around europe just making a crust.We have to keep going or there will be none of us left to keep the country that started out doing this job a long time ago on the map.
The initial attraction was reading stories in Truck mags and then stories from other drivers when I was on UK work (although most of them might have slighty adapted from the truth 
and that’s being kind 
) this appealed to my sense of adventure.
Of course it’s a lot different driving in Europe now than when I first read those stories,
The whole of Europe (or at least were I go) has an extensive motorway network, so not to much travelling through local towns and villages and it’s mostly open borders, even getting to places like Budapest isn’t really an adventure like it once was and now they’ve finished the motorway round the South of the Budapest you can’t drive through city anymore. So I agree alot fo it is just motorway driving and might not suit everybody.
But generally my experience of Europe is the roads are quieter,
the facilities are not just better, but they in a different league to the UK.
Some of the scenary is stunning even if you are on motorways and people seem to be more positive about trucks and truck drivers.
where do i start?
better driving conditions because either tolls to pay for roads or roadtax that actually goes on roads not into government coffers
better parking facilities nearly all free with showers and clean toilets and most of them much safer than uk
better food at much better prices
better attitude towards the truck driver, in the uk we are scum in europe we are still knights of the road
better trucks, generally get a big cab and engine rather than shopping trolley like axor or skinny iveco
although i have to agree that a working day of 9 hours drive plus an hour break is a convincing factor what is a 15 hour day?
nice to know when you leave home on a sunday where you’ll be parked up each night for the next 3 or 4 nights at least
and nobody ringing up every couple of hours asking where you are and when you’ll get somewhere just left alone to work
there are some traffic blackspots like paris or bordeaux but nothing like the whole of the uk is for most of the day
All i have ever done is euro work so maybe i can,t comment too much on UK work, and all the views above on working abroad help make the job better,I won,t list them.
The problem i have with England ( not Scotland and Ireland so much) every where you go its money to be paid out for nowt back eg,parking,crap food,garages,service stations, forcing us to park where we can, especially with fridges when you can finish the shift at any time of day or night, ending up in laybys or industrial estates covered in litter, infested with rats, no facilities not even basic bogs,we are not wanted, and just a nuisance to the builders and opperators of industrial estates and RDC,s,i say they should not be built without parking areas.
You look at most of these places in Euroland, they have a parking/ waiting area outside with access to toilets, and if they hav,t you will be directed to a restaurant or parking nearby.
Clean parking above with a bomb proof bog below, cleaned every day, should not be too much to ask for
Sorry to say it but i,ll be sticking to Euro work.
Klunk
mike, generally i enjoy euro work more than uk although i do both. why?. i tend to find car drivers are better behaved. better truckstops and bit more laid back than if i was on uk work. senery is good point to. we are regulary down on the bravarian/austrian border near salzburg and the view there in the summer is great. p.s i overtook you on the m6 new years eve round 11.30 am. tried to get your attention but you was chatting (or singing)…lol
Could not agree more with you klunk.I was lucky enough myself to do a couple of years on euro fridges back in the nineties for ND FRIDGE and remember my surprise at motorway service stations repeated requests of whether i was a truck driver and when i answered affirmative,having a decent ammount of the meal price reduced due to the fact i was a captive inhabitant of the motorway system.France has its priorities in order.Everything seems fixed for the benefit of everyone unlike blighty where only corporate knobshiners seem to matter.Believe me anyone who has the privelage to work in Europe and especially,France for a year or two, would truly appreciate the surreal horror that the uk is, in comparison.Euro fridge work has to be among the most demanding of occupations(pre-satnav)its possible to imagine as usually the stuff you collect tends to be in hard to reach places,to say the least,but taking the odd tautliner to say-Paris is hardly a tax on a drivers resources but its amazing how many jokers you meet seem to see themselves as latter day Marco Polos on account of the odd trip over the channel.I myself never subscribed to the notion that doing Europe was a reward in itself and think figures of 700 quid a week in pay most reflects the rigour and challenge of this type of work but it seriously grips my ■■■■ when i hear of ■■■■■■■■■ still doing it for less than 400 a week…frankly I despair folks.
klunk/■■■■■■■■
Clean parking above with a bomb proof bog below, cleaned every day, should not be too much to ask for
Sorry to say it but i,ll be sticking to Euro work.Klunk
And most of the graffiti is written in English 