Hi all.As many of you know i live up here in the far north[and am quite happy here]and work part time driving in the mines.As i work partime i do odd jobs for other people here.One of those jobs is delivering a specialised vacuum truck to southern Denmark each year.As these trucks work in the mine sucking all the crap out of the shafts they need renovating about every 5 yrs due to the caustic minerals.The guy has trouble to find anyone here to take the trucks as most of the people up here think they will drive off the edge of the world so is quite happy[£££]for me to do it.
I left Saturday and drove down through Sweden to Danmark arriving on Monday.The further south i went obviously the more traffic i saw.Almost every second truck had an '‘exotic’'nr plate.I know that there are still a lot of Dutch trucks coming up to Sweden with temp controlled goods so make the effort to talk to as many as i meet,first to keep my language skills current and to hear gossip and secondly to scrounge magazines and books for the same reason.During the trip i met 15 dutch trucks in parking places.5 of them were Dutch liveried trucks but with ‘‘exotic’’ nr plates and driverto match.9 were just ‘‘exotic’’ driverwho didn’t speak a word of Dutch and the other one was a Dutch owner driver who had no time to read due to the stress of the job.To say i was disappointed is an understatement.Mike
hutpik:
Hi all.As many of you know i live up here in the far north[and am quite happy here]and work part time driving in the mines.As i work partime i do odd jobs for other people here.One of those jobs is delivering a specialised vacuum truck to southern Denmark each year.As these trucks work in the mine sucking all the crap out of the shafts they need renovating about every 5 yrs due to the caustic minerals.The guy has trouble to find anyone here to take the trucks as most of the people up here think they will drive off the edge of the world so is quite happy[£££]for me to do it.
I left Saturday and drove down through Sweden to Danmark arriving on Monday.The further south i went obviously the more traffic i saw.Almost every second truck had an '‘exotic’'nr plate.I know that there are still a lot of Dutch trucks coming up to Sweden with temp controlled goods so make the effort to talk to as many as i meet,first to keep my language skills current and to hear gossip and secondly to scrounge magazines and books for the same reason.During the trip i met 15 dutch trucks in parking places.5 of them were Dutch liveried trucks but with ‘‘exotic’’ nr plates and driverto match.9 were just ‘‘exotic’’ driverwho didn’t speak a word of Dutch and the other one was a Dutch owner driver who had no time to read due to the stress of the job.To say i was disappointed is an understatement.Mike
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Come to the UK Mike, plenty of ‘exotic’ drivers here on GB plates.
So many ■■■■■■■■ threads to wade through like this one, who needs a magazine?!
Hi Cheggy.I fail to understand your criticism.the post was made from the point of view of someone who lived for many years in Holland but now who lives far out on the fringes of Europe.I have not been to Holland for 5 yrs now and only go to the south of Sweden about once a year.Yes,there has always been many '‘exotic’'drivers for the larger companies such as Harry Vosski and others but this was the first time i had seen the rapid absorbtion of ‘‘exotic’’ drivers into a once quite select sector of the Dutch transport industry and was surprised at the speed of change.My thought was ‘‘where are all the Dutch drivers working now’’.This situation being now prevalent in all European countries.
hutpik:
My thought was ‘‘where are all the Dutch drivers working now’’.This situation being now prevalent in all European countries.
Wind back the clock 10 or 15 years and there were a huge amount of British drivers going to Europe, now there are next to none in comparison. Same with the Germans and French, Spanish and Italians, Swiss and Austrians, Danes and Belgians. The work is still there, more freight than ever before moves between countries but we as a people have being totally by-passed by our own economies and sidelined in to other work. There are a lot of British, Dutch and German drivers here in Canada who once did international European work but there must be several thousand more back home doing heaven knows what. They’re either doing local domestic work, which is now also under pressure from eastern European firms and drivers, they’re out of driving altogether or they retired before everything was lost. It doesn’t say much for the future when the only way to transport Swedish goods for export is to not be Swedish, and the only way to get a job delivering German exports to Britain is to not be either German or British.
The whole point of free movement in the eu is to keep wages low. It will soon be time for ro & bg drivers to take over. Eu ,price of coca cola goes up ,wages go down.
harry:
The whole point of free movement in the eu is to keep wages low. It will soon be time for ro & bg drivers to take over.
It’ll be the end to Polish international road haulage as we know it!
those trucking jobs will change hands faster than the devaluation of the pound!
Cheggy:
So many [zb] threads to wade through like this one, who needs a magazine?!
Why comment then? Why even look in on here?
I hear what Your saying hutpik its a very sad state of affairs, I last travelled to Europe in April 2007 I took a load on a flat to Korinthos, to say I was upset was an understatement & I vowed never again & never have, I’m lucky now & don’t have to see first hand whats happened to a once great industry sold down the river on the dreams of a united states of europe.
robinhood_1984:
It doesn’t say much for the future when the only way to transport Swedish goods for export is to not be Swedish, and the only way to get a job delivering German exports to Britain is to not be either German or British.
^ This.
Which also applies to numerous other sectors of the economy in which foreign interests and populations benefit more from Britain’s trading regime than the Brits do.But still they find mugs who want join up to ‘serve their country’ and who sometimes pay the price for doing it. 
robinhood_1984:
harry:
The whole point of free movement in the eu is to keep wages low. It will soon be time for ro & bg drivers to take over.It’ll be the end to Polish international road haulage as we know it!
Not if the Poles and Lithuanians use Philipino drivers.Maybe then the Turks will hit back with Chinese and Indian drivers driving Turkish trucks. 
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Turks were given full freedom in Europe only saving grace is I think the Americans my be uneasy with an Islamic nation with to much clout in Europe although give it a few yeArs an gb will be in the axis of evil lol
kr79:
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Turks were given full freedom in Europe only saving grace is I think the Americans my be uneasy with an Islamic nation with to much clout in Europe although give it a few yeArs an gb will be in the axis of evil lol
Where cheap labour is concerned the Americans won’t give a zb just like the case with Japanese imports after what happened in WW2 and with China after what happened in Vietnam.
Yes Mike I know where you’re coming from, I myself feel like a prisoner spending life ‘stuck’ on the E20 twixt Esbjerg and Kobnhavn, too expensive to use for export work apparantly. A lot of blokes in same shoes, a lot getting out altogether and some retiring, terrible situation when your’e used to roaming around europe, but its all down to cost. Isn’t Sweden the same? The NL trucks that DSV use are driven by proper Nederlanders as are those I meet waiting to board the ship to Oslo, Reinings excepted,Hungarian, so maybe you were unlucky with those you met. MVG JR
Hi short walk.As you say,maybe i was unlucky with the ones i met.I was just disappointed at the speed at which the so called quality parts of transport in European countries are also being taken over by ‘‘exotic’’ drivers.The large general haulage companies have had '‘exotics’'for a long time but now the more ‘‘status’’ jobs also seem to be moving towards this.
The point i was trying to make was if,as is the case,companies are moving to cheap labour to facilitate greater profits,then first of all where are all the indigenous drivers working now.And also if wages are remaining constant or even going down rather then keeping pace with inflation we will soon reach a point where the populations of countries will not be able to afford the goods which are being produced with these profit gods in mind.
It’s funny but even though i enjoyed the trip to Danmark i was glad to come back to the emptiness of Lappland finding even Danmark crowded[this after living in Holland] At least scandinavia still retains some semblance of civility compared to the rest of Europe.Mike
Its no different to what happened to the shipping industry, Mike. Once British markets in the former empire were opened to all and sundry, at around the same time as flags of convenience, mainly employed by cheap skate Greek companies. It wasn’t long before shipping companies were going to the wall, either collapsing entirely or flagging out and even those that lingered on under the British flag started replacing British crew with convenient cheaper options, this started with the lower ranks first and today covers all ranks from Ordinary Seaman to the Captain himself.
The same thing happened with the fleets of every other western European country. The British owned fleet is non-existant now, with most ships flying the British flag actually being foreign owned and placed under the Red Ensign for convenience reasons. Many German owned container feeder vessels actually fly the British flag for the simple reason that under the German flag they need two engineers and under the British flag they need only one. When under the German flag they’d probably employ mostly German officers, when under the British flag they are always Polish, Russian or Ukrainian. This has happened because its been allowed to by our respective governments and apart from the seamen involved, no one else has noticed because ships are out of sight and out of mind.
Now they’re doing the same thing with trucks, after all, its a mobile transport unit like a ship is, it doesn’t have to be registered in the UK and have a British driver as its not fixed to the spot like a factory or office complex is. Eventually of course the balance will have to tip when the entire society is so severely undermined by these measures that as you say, we cannot afford the products being offered by the companies that once employed us but now no longer do, but still wish to sell their products to a society that is then broken and unable to spend. Its a time bomb ticking away fast, it just seems that more and more is being sacrificed and that no one will notice and we’ll be alright.
How many trucks can we lose, how many driving jobs, how many factories and call centres and coal mines and steel works can we lose until so many of our population are unemployed or earning a poverty wage in a dead end job that we as a society cannot function as a consumer base any longer? Its a bit like Easter Island with those large standing stones. The island used to be covered in tree’s but in time they needed more and more logs to move the stones and eventually they had none left and habitation on the island was no longer possible, the dog ate its own tail and the candle was burned at both ends until nothing remained.
Slightly ironic that a Brit driving a Swedish owned lorry to Denmark is complaining about exotic drivers in Dutch lorries
Although I get the point you’re making Mike 
robinhood_1984:
Eventually of course the balance will have to tip when the entire society is so severely undermined by these measures that as you say, we cannot afford the products being offered by the companies that once employed us but now no longer do, but still wish to sell their products to a society that is then broken and unable to spend. Its a time bomb ticking away fast, it just seems that more and more is being sacrificed and that no one will notice and we’ll be alright.
How many trucks can we lose, how many driving jobs, how many factories and call centres and coal mines and steel works can we lose until so many of our population are unemployed or earning a poverty wage in a dead end job that we as a society cannot function as a consumer base any longer?
I think that tipping point has already been reached and passed.In addition to the issue of immigrant imported labour you need to factor in the amount of jobs that have been exported in the form of imports of goods which were previously made here.In addition to which is the fact that we’re now a net importer of fuel.All of which explains the current economic situation and job opportunities for the indigenous workforce.
The fact is the place is already not functioning as a credible consumer base any longer.While any growth we do get will just translate into an even larger trade deficit and therefore even more debt.Not forgetting the threat of the resulting reduced defence budget in which the country can no longer defend it’s interests in the world combined with an open door immigration policy in which the Muslim threat exists probably more at home than it does abroad and other types of foreign immigrant majorities and their ideas taking precedence over the indigenous population’s .Which then leaves the contradiction of the fact that Britain’s economic base has been globalised to the point where there is no longer a ‘national interest’ from the point of view of those who run it all anyway and that includes the labour market.
Hi NMM.I take your point BUT the difference is that i emigrated to Sweden and before that Holland and have ALWAYS had exactly the same salary as a local.Always paid full social contributions in the country where i lived and spent my money in that country aiding the economy of my chosen place of residence.Plus i have adapted to the ways of life and learned the language and customs of my chosen country so as to fit in with the society as fully as possible.Mike