I was recently horrified to hear of EU drivers, found to be in charge of a Class1 HGV in spite of ‘Never’ taking a practical test. When asked how they obtained their license, the EU driver replied “in a classroom”.
The point of this post is to ask if anyone else has knowledge of similar instances?
Before we start EU driver bashing. Maybe he was taking the ■■■■ out of you?
the local army trainers around here are churning out class 1 drivers by the dozen, men and women to be fair, none want to do it but it is part of the overall training requirements apparently,
I’ve witnessed it first hand, once. Not saying it’s the norm, just that it does happen. Who knows what scale though. The guy I spoke to was a chef in the Polish army, he passed his class 1 in a transit van on an airfield. He’d never driven one before coming to the uk, and this was in 2006 ish
mrginge:
Before we start EU driver bashing. Maybe he was taking the ■■■■ out of you?
I wish to make it clear, I’m in no way ‘EU driver bashing’ as you put it. I merely seek to clarify it for myself by asking the question, whether anyone else on here has knowledge of such cases.
Given the fact the person who informed me is part of the management team at Stobarts, apparently he witnesses this type of thing on a daily basis. (EU drivers who have no practical experience in an articulated vehicle prior to driving on UK roads).
I worked with many polish drivers who came to the uk when the gates were opened…i got to know them and asked how they got their licence, merely trying to find out if it was easier or harder than our own regulations. I was SHOCKED, when they admitted that their test consisted of a farm tractor, with a trailer behind, was enough to give them a class 1 licence…thats why they came in their thousands, and caused havoc on our roads, and in company depots ( ask Turners of Soham how many hundreds of thousands of pounds they caused in damage, including brand new vehicles in the depot…even wrecking the fuel pumps…of course theyb also had the added advantage of getting used to a right hand drive vehicle of which mkany had never been inside one…let alone driven one or 44 tons to be precise.
I too am not an EE basher, as my wife is Bulgarian…and i actually work with BG registered vehicles across europe and the UK.
I have noticed that the Poles are not causing so much carnage anymore…its down to the Hungarians now. 
well we must all know some home grown drivers that must have got someone else to do the test for them as their driving is so bad.
If I hadn’t been pensioned off through an injury, I could still be driving now and I got my licence on grandfathers rights, no test.
There was a time not so long ago when that was the way it was everywhere. Assessments and Highway code tests, questions on hours regs were way off in the future… 
hotel magnum:
well we must all know some home grown drivers that must have got someone else to do the test for them as their driving is so bad.
A driver from the UK i knew a few years back got his licence in this very way…last time i heard from him he was working for Nolans doing european work…
when I worked at salvesen and the EE drivers started coming in , I had one guy come in looking for a job, and when I asked his driving experience I finally worked out it was driving a transit for the council around riga, another one’s sole experience was driving a missile launcher for the red army, another had been a doctor in the Russian army, one bloke came in with his daughter to translate and he was the ‘only driven a tractor and trailer’ type.
of the ones I had foisted on me by upper management (it was a scheme as we were chronically short of drivers at the time and the mod kept nicking several for their ME disputes)
I had a wannabee rock star from Czech republic, (always claimed he wasn’t the one on the camera speeding) , a pole who wanted to abandon his trailer at desford after putting it in a ditch trying to do a U-turn (trailer in green area , I drop yes?) , another pole who delighted in destroying fuel station canopies, a Czech who got lost going to shrewsbury and ended up in chester, (he couldn’t speak English and we couldn’t pronounce his name) , several who couldn’t understand the concept of swapping trailers,(why, when 1 trailer is good enough) , there are more but these ones stick out to me
now its not to say they’re all bad drivers ,they’re not, some are really good , once we’d knocked them into shape they were alright , but , most were better on night trunking, stick to the same few destinations.Tramping and multi drops, no, too much paperwork they didn’t quite grasp, too much ‘no understand’ on the phone, well at least for the first year or so anyway.
my experience , cant say it would be the same everywhere , but we had the first few and what an experience it was.