Few years ago, there was a trend in UK to flag out their lorry fleets to the Netherlands. The reasons were different — big vehicle insurance costs and high road taxes, even problems with VOSA itself.
You can get yearly vehicle insurance for about €1800;
No need to pay road tax in Bulgaria, as you will be operating mainly outside the country
MOT is done once a year for all vehicles which are less than 10 years old! How does this sound? MOT is as cheap as €140.
Easy adjusting to companies with self-employed drivers.
Corporation tax of only 10% flat. Dividend tax of 5%.
Full and dedicated legal and accounting services to your company
You can use your current CPC transport manager. Even more - you or a person appointed by you can obtain a CPC from Bulgaria
No good to anybody exclusively operating in the UK though as it would breach cabotage rules to do more than three movements without then leaving the UK.
I did look into this when I was starting up but as I recall, there were other disadvantages which weren’t immediately apparent but which became flagged up the further I looked at it. Given that this was about a year ago and I have yet to see a UK operated truck, even one on international work, operating on Bulgarian plates then I’d say that other folk get the same negative vibes about it.
Before anyone says it, I know there are some Mickey Mouse operators running trucks on Romanian plates pulling ferry trailers out of Ramsgate but I believe VOSA are all over them like a rash.
Insurance is pretty expensive, I paid about €1000 per year on my Scania here in Estonia
I did look into this when I was starting up but as I recall, there were other disadvantages which weren’t immediately apparent but which became flagged up the further I looked at it
From the top of my head there will be problems when the driver gets paid from a different country than the one the truck is registered in. For example, Andreassons Akeri in Sweden is currently in trouble with the taxman regarding the 200+ polish drivers in their swedish trucks. http://hn.se/nyheter/varberg/1.1854540-skattesmall-i-mangmiljonklassen-for-andreassons-akeri
There’s a Bulgarian registered ex Royal Mail DAF 85 CF on for Sealane, you can see him working most weekends. My life is too short to talk to the driver and see what the scam is .
the kaiser:
There’s a Bulgarian registered ex Royal Mail DAF 85 CF on for Sealane, you can see him working most weekends. My life is too short to talk to the driver and see what the scam is .
I know, in my last employed job I was subbed to Sealane- a horrible firm- and I used to see it regularly, it looked a right mess (I thought it was on Romanian plates but stand corrected).
Even a T-Cut would make it look 100x better, it’s a kind of dull pink with a few bright red Royal Mail shaped bits on the roof fairing and doors.
Just looking at it you can see that it is never given any more than the most rudimentary maintenance. It looks a complete and total embarrassment.
Sealane are welcome to it, there’s no way Gregory’s would even allow it into their village.
So much for the big EU free trade agreements.
It appears it’s only free trade when it suits them.
I looked into the insurance thing last year.
I can insure a car for my lad in Holland for less than 100 euros. But in the UK it’s £2000+.
But a Dutch insurance company can’t insure a car that’s on UK plates.
Harry Monk:
I did look into this when I was starting up but as I recall, there were other disadvantages which weren’t immediately apparent but which became flagged up the further I looked at it. .
Really
I thought you were very anti that kind of thing, yet you looked into it to see if you could save giving a few quid to the taxman
Maybe you should write another letter to VOSA and see if they’ll make an exception for you to run on BG plates
If you get a knock back, ask them if you could run on Canadian plates, I’ll post some over to you, my treat, I’ll claim it back on my tax form
limeyphil:
So much for the big EU free trade agreements.
It appears it’s only free trade when it suits them.
I looked into the insurance thing last year.
I can insure a car for my lad in Holland for less than 100 euros. But in the UK it’s £2000+.
But a Dutch insurance company can’t insure a car that’s on UK plates.
My insurance costs 180 leva @ 2.3 to the pound
eco tax 132 leva payable once on import.
Registration was 89 leva
Road tax 65 leva per year
Municipality tax payable annually 37 leva
Diesel costs 2.60 a litre
Plus if I cant afford to tax or insure it, I can live at peace knowing Im not going to be fined for having it parked outside my house
limeyphil:
So much for the big EU free trade agreements.
It appears it’s only free trade when it suits them.
I looked into the insurance thing last year.
I can insure a car for my lad in Holland for less than 100 euros. But in the UK it’s £2000+.
But a Dutch insurance company can’t insure a car that’s on UK plates.
Could you not flag the car out.
i’m seriously thinking of doing it.
car and insurance registered at a dutch postal address.
it just might work.
You have reminded me to follow this up, several months ago I sent it to Peter Carroll (Astran - UKIP) who I thought would be interested, he asked if he could use the email to use in a fair fuel lobby. I must see if anything came of it. I hadn’t heard of MH again until today.
I looked at the link to this scheme when it was first posted on TruckNet, sometime in between taking the CPC exam and getting the results. It didn’t seem to offer any advantages to me. Sorry I looked at it.
limeyphil:
So much for the big EU free trade agreements.
It appears it’s only free trade when it suits them.
I looked into the insurance thing last year.
I can insure a car for my lad in Holland for less than 100 euros. But in the UK it’s £2000+.
But a Dutch insurance company can’t insure a car that’s on UK plates.
Could you not flag the car out.
i’m seriously thinking of doing it.
car and insurance registered at a dutch postal address.
it just might work.
Not sure how the Dutch law works regarding using a PO Box, but worth a try. Let us know how you get on…
limeyphil:
So much for the big EU free trade agreements.
It appears it’s only free trade when it suits them.
I looked into the insurance thing last year.
I can insure a car for my lad in Holland for less than 100 euros. But in the UK it’s £2000+.
But a Dutch insurance company can’t insure a car that’s on UK plates.
Could you not flag the car out.
i’m seriously thinking of doing it.
car and insurance registered at a dutch postal address.
it just might work.
Not sure how the Dutch law works regarding using a PO Box, but worth a try. Let us know how you get on…
I doubt it’ll work with a PO Box number, but i’m sure someone will be able to supply an address.
Harry Monk:
Out of interest, why did British hauliers stop flagging out to the Netherlands?
I think it was mostly due to the reduction in the UK VED levels for trucks. Also the threat of prosecution under cabotage regulations would have had a serious affect on the UK only hauliers who tried it.
There was also a significant number of northern Irish hauliers who registered trucks in the south at around the same time. Most of these that are still running seem to have switched back to registering their trucks in NI.
