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Not actually true at the moment HJ, I was at a VOSA inspection at one of my clients last week just outside Guildford - the examiner there was telling us that at the moment there is a real big push going on with foreign trucks, and they are stopping lots more then they have done in the past. The average motorist will not see a roadside check as the wagons are pulled by the Police into either a weigh bridge or into motorway service areas and then get checked there. You are right in that we have few dedicated check areas, but then if we had more the illegal operators would just avoid that bit of road, far better to have a more mobile checking system if you ask me.
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400 fatalities, eh? That's over 10% of the total killed on UK roads. Looks like it should be right at the top of the priority list for the authorities, and perhaps TU's post confirms that it is.
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The number of checks made in the UK by VOSA is minute compared to those made by the German authorities.One centre on the M62 operates 1 day a week and they are lucky if they examine 10 vehicles.
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But as HJ pointed out, the foreign trucks don't just appear out of thin air, they have to transit other countries to get here. So how come they are not picked up in Germany on their way through? I am assuming it is because as a % the UK must check a similar amount of vehicles, but there will always be some that get through, unless there was a 100% checking procedure at ports, but that would be uneconomical and no doubt our european neighbors would complain that it was unfair!!!
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I've seen trucks waiting to cross the German border from Poland on a Monday morning and the queue has been more than five miles long. I don't know how thoroughly or how many are checked or what they're looking for but they wave the private traffic through and stop the trucks. I remember feeling very sorry them as I was driving in the other direction wondering when the queue was going to end.
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I've seen trucks waiting to cross the German border from Poland on a Monday morning and the queue has been more than five miles long.
These are not evaluated for safety but contraband though. Loosing borders along entire Oder line will sooner or later result in massive job losses and job migrations for German customs and border control staff. They are almost entirely surrounded by EU, so there isn't that many places they can go. As far as I know they managed to secure themselves a right to remain in service for as long as illegal transit and movement of illegal immigrants from Russia and eastern states remains a problem, at least at certain level. So, for their own good, to keep their jobs as long as possible they are now much more thorough and overzelous when it comes to checking HGVs and TIRs going both ways...
It's not only commercial transit. Last year, traveling in regular hatchback, with British plates I was stopped twice by german customs patrol cars, within 60 miles from eastern border, escorted to a Zoll garage, told to unpack the car completely and the car, myself and all my luggage was sniffed by dogs, searched and tested for contact with drugs. Not only they are not interested in your travel schedule and the fact you have to catch ferry at very specific time, but they also get more aggressive and annoyed when they don't find find any extra cigarettes or alcohol above maximum quote levels...
Back to foreign lorries. If they are responsible for 10% of deaths on British roads... how come it never surfaced as a problem on the continent? Do these lorries just magically appear in Dover out of some sort of hell gate to wreck havoc or is it first sip of British water that makes them drive like loonies all over UK roads but not anywhere else?
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[Nissan 2.2 dCi are NOT Renault engines. Grrr...]
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"Back to foreign lorries. If they are responsible for 10% of deaths on British roads... how come it never surfaced as a problem on the continent? Do these lorries just magically appear in Dover out of some sort of hell gate to wreck havoc or is it first sip of British water that makes them drive like loonies all over UK roads but not anywhere else?"
My wife and I run a small recruitment agency tied into a UK logistics company and we've been processing a lot of Polish lorry drivers recently. Most of them are qualified to ADR dangerous cargo and many are licensed for miltary cargo and ammunitions. These guys seem to know exactly what they're doing.
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These guys seem to know exactly what they're doing.
Yep, driving down the wages of the British drivers, to which you are helping and taking a nice tidy profit for your troubles no doubt!!!
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Knew it was a bad idea to raise that here.
But yes.
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>>Yep, driving down the wages of the British drivers, to which you are helping and taking a nice tidy profit for your troubles no doubt!!!<<
The man has to live TU.
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"The man has to live TU."
Yeah he's got an overspecced 3-litre car to pay for.
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Yeah he's got an overspecced 3-litre car to pay for.
And a lot of appalling habits by his own account...
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>>Yeah he's got an overspecced 3-litre car to pay for.<<
And copious amounts of custard.
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TU, I presume you shop only in Harrods or Waitrose, and only ever buy the most expensive of any selection of goods?
Otherwise, welcome to the real world. For any commodity, and a truck driver is, for these purposes only, a commodity, people will buy the cheapest that is fit for purpose. Any other strategy may work in the short term, but will ensure that you go bust in the medium to long term, as others who are not so high minded undercut you. British Truck drivers are going to disappear, they are not going to be willing to work for the wages that the eastern Europeans will. Nothing we can do about it, at least BBD is making a living from the situation.
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Gordon, well as long as BBD can make a living that is ok, I would hate to think that by him putting xx amount of people out of work he could not make a tidy profit for himself!!!!
The problem is there are far more issues when using cheap imported labour then just undercutting wages. It should be about road safety, how many of BBD's drivers have had even a small amount of training on UK roads before being told to go out and get on with it? How much English do they speak or understand? how much of the highway code do they know? How much of UK road law do they know let alone understand?
Many UK Logistics companies have actually stopped employing foreign labour as it has worked out more expensive for them - they have more accidents and can't do as much work in the same time - but other companies keep employing them!!!!!
I know BBD is just filling a need in the market, but that does not mean I can't disagree with it. In my job I see how many companies (smaller ones) are going under because of the cheap importing of labour, and don't forget that the money they earn is not spent here, it is spent at home and as such our whole economy looses out, but thats ok cos BBD can now afford to put some more petrol in!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Eeeek. That's me outcast.
So it might sting a bit when I say that as soon as the next round of countries join the EU I'm going to take my business there where labour is cheaper and the profit margins are higher.
And upgrade to a V8
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V12 surely. When you have a V6 you upgrade in blocks of 6 cylinders.
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So it might sting a bit when I say that as soon as the next round of countries join the EU I'm going to take my business there where labour is cheaper and the profit margins are higher. And upgrade to a V8
You might be the one moaning like I am, Isn't Poland one of the few countries that is going to allow unlimited immigration? The tables may well turn! So don't go getting that V8 just yet, might end up having to get a Smart car instead.
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I?m a designer by trade TU, I know what it is to see salaries eroded by any old secretary that can work a Mac.
I have been screwed over many times.
But the world doesn't owe me a living, I just get on as best I can
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TU, you may well be correct, and if it is more expensive then you can be sure that the jobs will return to the UK.
My point was that he is not putting people out of work any more than a manager moving simple volume manufacturing out of the UK to China (for example) is putting people out of work. If they did not take these actions, then their product would become uncompetitive, and the entire company would go under. By losing some jobs, you hopefully don't lose all of them.
There is no point in criticising BBD for serving a customer need. His UK customers presumably are trying ot keep their business afloat by shedding costs. If he is involved in processing and vetting foreign drivers, ensuring that they are legal to operate here, then surely that is better than no control?
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I fully understand his reasons for doing what he does, but I don't agree with them - I can see all the commercial arguments for what is happening, but again I don't agree with them. But we also want safe roads, and putting drivers who may not be trained to as high a standard as UK drivers are trained on the roads is going to possibly cost us all dear in the long run!!!
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Returnig home from Eastbourne on Sunday (M25 , A22-M1 -Luton) There were large numbers of LT and PL trucks going north , I only recall seing 2 uk lorries. This is a regular journey for me and I don't remember seing this quantity of trucks before I comment not on their condition , drivers , but numbers.
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In answer to HJ they are probably ok when they arrive in the UK but then maybe go 12 months without seeing any form of service,lets face it a UK firm wants its goods delivered he is only interested in time and price safety will be well down his list.I doubt if some of these trucks are even insured , taxed or the driver has a pucker licence upto this year you could get a Polish HGV licence extremely easily and Albanian ones probably come in corn flake packets.
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