Advice Norway, Sweden, Latvia

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS EURO DRIVING FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Got to send a race transport Artic, and 3.5t Van and car trailer to various parts of Northern Europe. No experience of Scandinavia or the Baltic states so I would like some advice on Routes and Regulations etc. (I am also doing my own research, but can’t beat asking people with the experience)

First one is Norway near Trondheim in June,
I’ve read that all vehicles need toll tags for Norway,
as its June I assume there is no worry about the tyres.
Do we need an Carnet for an EEA Country?

Second Holjes Sweden July,
which seems to be about 400kms North of Gothenburg.
it’s the same daily vignettes for HGV’s as Denmark, the Netherlands and Luxembourg?
Direct Ferry to Gothenburg or drive through Denmark?
Any other regs that the unwary can fall foul of?

Last Riga, Latvia. Late September.
So advice for Poland and Lithuania would also be useful or is there a ferry option to cut them out and reduce road miles?

Thank You

2

You are correct for norway.
You can only pay with an toll tag, This you can get, or at the border, or via a fuel card, DKV , shell …Info found here: autopass.no
Winter tyres are obligatory untill march 31 st.
RV 3 is a nice alternative in stead of the E6
For the paperwork, as we only do normal haulage, we are on T forms, so I presume carnet will be OK.

Sweden is Eurovignette with a few toll roads around major cities., no special paperwork necessary.
Ferries depend on how much time you have, I have no clue about rates, but presumebly the rate for Gothenburg will be not much more as the Esbjerg one.
Speed limit is 80 km/h and if caught out, it is expensive. (Same for Norway)

Poland has a similar toll system as Austria and you can find info here: viatoll.pl/en/home. Register before leaving, it makes life a lot easier…
They have a few driving bans around cities, speed limit is 80 km / h ( as a foreigner, you are very likely singled out and most welcome to pay… :imp: .)

Latvia is vignette, info on: lvvignette.eu/
(Unknown territory, so unable to help here. :blush:

3

Thanks Bald

Really helpful advice,

I have a rough idea about ferries to Sweden as I had to price a job there a couple of years ago, not cheap but I just need to find the info and give it to the management.
Have also seen a ferry from Lubeck to Latvia so could avoid Poland and Lithuania.

4

From memory the ferry from Travemunde to Ventspils only sails weekly on a Saturday. Hardly worth the hassle to be honest.

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Hi muckles, Harbour Shipping always seem to have all the info on all the ferry crossings around Europe.

Baltic Ferry links here…

harbourshipping.co.uk/ferry- … baltic-sea

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bullitt:
Hi muckles, Harbour Shipping always seem to have all the info on all the ferry crossings around Europe.

Baltic Ferry links here…

harbourshipping.co.uk/ferry- … baltic-sea

Thanks Bullitt, we already use them, so was going to get some quotes from them next week.

7

The DFDS ferry from Kiel to Klaipeda (LT) is a popular one, 6 sailings per week. It’s an extra 100km to Riga but the road between Ventspils and Riga used to be the worst one in the country. The ferrys are pretty nice compared to the roadworks season in Poland.

For customs advice and declarations in Norway contact KGH http://kghcustoms.com/ or NTS http://www.tullservice.se/

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Have a look in the first post in Euro Drivers Info Point as well.

9

Hi muckles,

All of the countries that you’ve mentioned (Norway, Sweden, Latvia, Poland and Lithuania) are members of ADR, so all the ADR info that you have will remain the same.

If it’s of any interest, I’ll throw in Finland, Belarus, Ukraine and Latvia and say that even then, nothing changes in ADR.

:bulb: At least there’s nothing new to concern you about the dangerous goods that you carry. :smiley:

10

Looks like I might be doing the trip to Norway as we can’t find a driver, it will be going from immingham to Gothenburg, I know it’s a freight boat but is it ok? And what to expect driving in Sweden and Norway? Never been there so part of me is thinking go for it the other part is wanting the week off I was due.
Any good stops between Gotheburg and Trondhiem?
Especially with hotels as it not my normal truck and I’ll be flying home so can’t really carry my stove and brew kit etc.

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Hi Muckles,

Gothenborg - Svinesund at the border is approx 180 km and Svinesund to Trondheim another 600 to 650.
Make sure you have your toll tag, because once in norway you can not pay cash as they are all automatic.
From Oslo to Trondheim you have 2 possibilities, E6 or RV 3. On the E 6 you will propably find more hotels but RV 3 is shorter and IMHO the nicer drive. North of Oslo it is all 2 lane traffic, if memory is correct, it used to be an 8 hour drive
Can not help with the boat.
It is a stunningly beautifull country, relaxed drive, although sometimes a bit narrow, you will love it…

12

Hi Bald, thanks for the advice, I’m not going now, having the week off I was due instead. :smiley:
We were struggling to find a driver, but we’re sorted now. but I said if they can’t find one I’d do it, partly to help out and partly to to the drive, it’s another Country to tick off, and I’ve heard it’s pretty stunning scenery.

Getting good drivers for motorsport work seems to be getting harder, I am asked or hear from teams and companies every week desperate for a driver for a trip.

I’ve sorted out a tag for the truck, booked the vignette for Sweden, done the paperwork, sorted out running money, so hopefully the driver should be able to get on and do the job. Always a worry when you send somebody haven’t worked with before off in the truck, you hope they’re up to it and hope you’ve done your prep so they get a trouble free journey, but the advice I’ve had from this website over the years has been invaluable. :smiley:

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muckles:
…Getting good drivers for motorsport work seems to be getting harder, I am asked or hear from teams and companies every week desperate for a driver for a trip…

Hello Muckles, interesting comment you make there. A few weeks ago on the Davies International thread, John Davies, the original founder of the company, AKA Buzzer, made the same comment! Not motor sport of course as his work is refrigerated, but his point was the same…that they cant get regular drivers!!

I would have thought that in your game, motorsport, you would have had them queuing up at the door! Are things really that bad?

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bullitt:

muckles:
…Getting good drivers for motorsport work seems to be getting harder, I am asked or hear from teams and companies every week desperate for a driver for a trip…

Hello Muckles, interesting comment you make there. A few weeks ago on the Davies International thread, John Davies, the original founder of the company, AKA Buzzer, made the same comment! Not motor sport of course as his work is refrigerated, but his point was the same…that they cant get regular drivers!!

I would have thought that in your game, motorsport, you would have had them queuing up at the door! Are things really that bad?

Would have thought it would attract drivers wanting something different, but I have been asked on a regular basis if I know anybody who can work for this team or that team, the last week it was Dunlop wanting a driver to go to Portamao.

Of 10 Truckies including me, who used to work for Norfolk teams in 2010, One is a free lance truckie, 2 drive taxis, 2 are in F1, so never go near the trucks, one is a BT engineer, one runs a pub and another has retired and only myself and one other works full-time as a truckie for a racing team.

I think there are various reasons for the problem.

Teams are looking for drivers in a dwindling pool of experienced motorsport truckies, they’ll rarely risk an unknown driver.
A lot of teams now want the drivers on an event by event basis, so it’s not a full time job.
Drivers on General haulage are getting older, so they’re not really interested in a change of job, especially as the job involves quite a lot of physical work and for the younger drivers they’re likely to be family men and it does mean a lot of time away.

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I guess that if it is an event by event position then it may make it awkward to fill the position. Seems like it would suit a retired or semi retired ex euro driver who still fancies doing the odd job keep his hand in! :wink:
Do you need a DCPC to drive the team trucks?

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Well if it’s an event by event job, then no wonder it’s difficult. Most people are looking for full time.

We do Euro and have youngsters and er, not youngsters, but we keep them on through the slack periods. Is it not worth it to the team’s to send a youngster out with someone with experience? Admittedly ours is two man for security, but it makes you feel a lot safer if you know you’ve got a good driver doing on the job training, not to mention the feedback from the regular driver.

Gothenburg ferry is rubbish at the moment. One of DFDSs was in a collision with another at Immingham earlier in the year, boats likely to be off for another fee months; in the interim they’ve dug up some old thing. The lads are not impressed.

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bullitt:
I guess that if it is an event by event position then it may make it awkward to fill the position. Seems like it would suit a retired or semi retired ex euro driver who still fancies doing the odd job keep his hand in! :wink:
Do you need a DCPC to drive the team trucks?

You do need a DCPC, and yes having a few older experienced drivers you can call on is what teams are doing, I know one guy in his 70’s who takes the parts truck to events for a team.

And if you’re hinting on doing the odd event, I’m sure I could point you in the right direction. :laughing:

albion:
Well if it’s an event by event job, then no wonder it’s difficult. Most people are looking for full time.

We do Euro and have youngsters and er, not youngsters, but we keep them on through the slack periods. Is it not worth it to the team’s to send a youngster out with someone with experience? Admittedly ours is two man for security, but it makes you feel a lot safer if you know you’ve got a good driver doing on the job training, not to mention the feedback from the regular driver.

It’s not a great situation and as a driver, a trend I’m not happy with, I think teams see trucks and therefore their drivers as a necessary evil and want to cut those costs as much as possible. But as the people I’m now with found out, not having somebody looking after the truck and equipment both on event and when back at the workshop can backfire, small jobs on the truck become large jobs before they’re sorted and trying to find drivers at short notice, means you have to take what you get and judging by the damage to the trailers not all of them were that good. :confused:

I have worked for teams where we’ve doubled manned or even just run in convoy and it is a great way for a young driver or a driver who hasn’t done much European driving to gain experience. In the past I’ve known teams who’ve had a good lad and pay for their HGV training, but at the moment they all seem to be chasing the same group of old timers hoping they’ll do the odd days, hopefully things will change sooner rather than later.

albion:
Gothenburg ferry is rubbish at the moment. One of DFDSs was in a collision with another at Immingham earlier in the year, boats likely to be off for another fee months; in the interim they’ve dug up some old thing. The lads are not impressed.

Oh well hopefully it won’t be to bad for the lad doing the job, he has got to Immingham, so that a good start, just got to get to Trondheim or actually a place called Hell, he has got 2 day to do 800kms, so not pushed.

18

Twas ever thus, that transport is a neccesary evil. It still winds me up though, particularly with high value loads, when they won’t spend a small percentage more to get a better service.

I think the old boat was pretty good, so it makes this one look worse. Sounds like a nice little run. We rarely go into Norway, but Sweden is popular with the drivers.

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albion:
Twas ever thus, that transport is a neccesary evil. It still winds me up though, particularly with high value loads, when they won’t spend a small percentage more to get a better service.

People who run race teams rarely have very little interest in trucks and they have very little interest or knowledge in the legalities of running trucks. but normally it’s the only way to get all that stuff to the circuit, the annual cost of running a truck pales against a full set of carbon brakes for a high performance car, the cost of one relatively minor excursion into the barrier.

When I’ve gone to race teams I’ve quickly found myself far more than just a truck driver and somebody who does a bit of work at the circuit. I’ve found myself acting as a transport manager, health and safety manager, purchaser, project manager and a load of other tasks for the team owner or manager. Its means they don’t have to think about how the kit gets to and from events, it just happens.
Any problems are sorted out, often without them knowing what it took to deal with it. For me it’s meant a lot of control over what I do and some level of freedom over how I do things, as long as the job gets done and didn’t cost a fortune they’re happy.

It’s why I think race teams need to think about employing good drivers on a full-time basis, people who can take on the responsibilities of running the vehicles and other tasks, it’s not always an extra cost, it’s somebody who can take a lot of problems off their shoulders, providing they recruit properly and allow the person to develop in their role.

20

muckles:
People who run race teams rarely have very little interest in trucks and they have very little interest or knowledge in the legalities of running trucks. but normally it’s the only way to get all that stuff to the circuit, the annual cost of running a truck pales against a full set of carbon brakes for a high performance car, the cost of one relatively minor excursion into the barrier.

When I’ve gone to race teams I’ve quickly found myself far more than just a truck driver and somebody who does a bit of work at the circuit. I’ve found myself acting as a transport manager, health and safety manager, purchaser, project manager and a load of other tasks for the team owner or manager. Its means they don’t have to think about how the kit gets to and from events, it just happens.
Any problems are sorted out, often without them knowing what it took to deal with it. For me it’s meant a lot of control over what I do and some level of freedom over how I do things, as long as the job gets done and didn’t cost a fortune they’re happy.

It’s why I think race teams need to think about employing good drivers on a full-time basis, people who can take on the responsibilities of running the vehicles and other tasks, it’s not always an extra cost, it’s somebody who can take a lot of problems off their shoulders, providing they recruit properly and allow the person to develop in their role.

Whilst what we move is a world away from race kit, it’s still very high tech, very expensive and hazardous as well. And we get the same thing, transport is an inconvenience until someone invents a teletransporter that works in other places than the Starship Enterprise.

And again, we charge a ppm that may seem high, but there’s a lot of management to sort out to get the job done - probably like yourself, we work on doing a bit extra to make the job go smoothly which keeps the customer happy and makes it harder for other companies to take the work from us. And it also covers the quiet periods when we need to keep paying the drivers even if they aren’t that busy.