welshboyinspain:
as a brit working for a foreign firm it would be highly hypocritical of me to slag off the eastern europeans for taking work out of their respective countries.
however what really annoys me with them is,
why they are willing to work for low wages rather than what the locals work for thus lowering the wages for everybody
why they insist on wearing flipflops with socks and tracksuit bottoms
why they refuse to shower even when they are free
why they drive so bloody slowly especially when there is a no overtaking ban on
apart from that we have 2 ukranians and an estonian working with us and they seem to work like us
Because they mostimes don’t get offered big wages to start with
Sandals and socks is a British invention
Many a Brit, francoise, Belgium, Irish, German don’t know where this little cabin is for where warm water runs over your body, and soap is for some of them a new word.
They drive slow because they are used to it, most roads in Britain get the same quality that you will drive slow around the potholes.
That’s is annoying tough.
Thing is as much as you guys think the Brits didn’t go abroad and undercut the locals it’s not true. Why do you think at many Dutch companies at one point it was nearly all British drivers? Because we would run day and night and still be cheaper than a Dutchman. HSF Ninmegen was all British because the work was so hard the Dutch didn’t want it.
caledoniandream:
Because they mostimes don’t get offered big wages to start with
so thats an excuse for working for half wages??
Sandals and socks is a British invention
sandals yes but not cheap and nasty plastic flipflops and nasty looking tracksuits
Many a Brit, francoise, Belgium, Irish, German don’t know where this little cabin is for where warm water runs over your body, and soap is for some of them a new word.
in my life i have met dirty drivers from everywhere but not on the scale of east europeans
They drive slow because they are used to it, most roads in Britain get the same quality that you will drive slow around the potholes.
there are no potholes on the forest road but they insist on doing 70 in an 80 zone wakners
That’s is annoying tough.
switchlogic:
Thing is as much as you guys think the Brits didn’t go abroad and undercut the locals it’s not true. Why do you think at many Dutch companies at one point it was nearly all British drivers? Because we would run day and night and still be cheaper than a Dutchman. HSF Ninmegen was all British because the work was so hard the Dutch didn’t want it.
While I agree with that, i think the work ethic changed. I am not sure when or why but all of a sudden, the Dutch drivers discovered the weekends and enjoying them at home. Fridays cards became frisbees and the Dutch went home, the Dutch trucks you saw in all the restos and autohofs were slowly becoming manned by Brits and Irish, From Harry Vos, Wim Vos etc
Eventually the biggest companies like HSF and H&S were doing this along with German, Belgian and even French operators.
We cant really complain when our own operators do the same.
AlexWignall:
Is it me or do British Drivers who have worked for Foreign Firms or have done more than the odd trip in Europe tend to be more open minded on this subject?
W
No, it’s not just you.
Two years ago, when I was running to Spain, I got back to the yard at just past midnight on Christmas Eve.
Even though I was pleased to be at home, I thought of the Romanian bloke who I had met, in the pouring rain and in the middle of a small Spanish village (on the south coast where it never rains), at one of my five collections.
He was looking forward to Christmas somewhere between Spain and Belgium, where the owners of his truck were based.
At home in Romania, he told me, he had a wife and young son who he would not see until well into the New Year.
His choice, you might say, but he could earn more in two weeks than he could in a month at home and was trying for a better life for his family.
In my humble opinion, you can’t knock a bloke for this and I don’t care where they come from, I judge by what I find, not someone else’s stereotype.
The bottom line was that we were in a small village, far from home and close to Christmas.
He, unfortunately, was the one in the saying “there’s always someone worse off than you.”
switchlogic:
Thing is as much as you guys think the Brits didn’t go abroad and undercut the locals it’s not true. Why do you think at many Dutch companies at one point it was nearly all British drivers? Because we would run day and night and still be cheaper than a Dutchman. HSF Ninmegen was all British because the work was so hard the Dutch didn’t want it.
While I agree with that, i think the work ethic changed. I am not sure when or why but all of a sudden, the Dutch drivers discovered the weekends and enjoying them at home. Fridays cards became frisbees and the Dutch went home, the Dutch trucks you saw in all the restos and autohofs were slowly becoming manned by Brits and Irish, From Harry Vos, Wim Vos etc
Eventually the biggest companies like HSF and H&S were doing this along with German, Belgian and even French operators.
We cant really complain when our own operators do the same.
That is my expiriance.
At H&S in Evergem I was on exactly the same rate as the local lads. I earned a great deal more than them because I was in a position to do extra work. Even if it was just shunting containers from Gent to R’dam all day Saturday.
Nobody resented me for it because they were happy to have the weekend off. Belgian drivers will work like madmen during the week but come Friday they expect to be home with a pincher in their hand and the kids cleaning the truck.
The majority of us UK citizens, is that we are in essence, a bunch of lazy ■■■■■. We have been brought up expecting something for nothing.
How many times do you hear…“It’s not my job…I’m not doing it?”
We have no-one to blame but ourselves. If I was offered double the money, for the same work in another country…Bye! WOULD YOU?
hanson:
they should all go back. they keep our wages down,and will do twice as much as us and most bosses would rather employ one of them than you, if the bosses didnt employ them they wouldnt be here what money they do earn goes back home they have there own car here and ride round in them they dont have to tax or mot them.but most of you will never see that your wages will not go up while they will do your job for a lot less and a lot quicker.
I do not do it for less and I do it slower than British drivers. I am overtaken all the times
I literally halved my salary while almost doubling my weekly working hours coming here from Sweden. Sometimes i get called a ■■■■■■■ foreigner by skanky looking FLT drivers with horrible regional accents that I can hardly understand.
SwedishSteel:
I literally halved my salary while almost doubling my weekly working hours coming here from Sweden. Sometimes i get called a [zb] foreigner by skanky looking FLT drivers with horrible regional accents that I can hardly understand.
SwedishSteel:
I literally halved my salary while almost doubling my weekly working hours coming here from Sweden. Sometimes i get called a [zb] foreigner by skanky looking FLT drivers with horrible regional accents that I can hardly understand.
Why stay ?
Because my english yellowbelly wife gets homesick…
That’s right! I came here and nicked one of your jobs after taking one of your women!!!
SwedishSteel:
I literally halved my salary while almost doubling my weekly working hours coming here from Sweden. Sometimes i get called a [zb] foreigner by skanky looking FLT drivers with horrible regional accents that I can hardly understand.
Why stay ?
Because my english yellowbelly wife gets homesick…
That’s right! I came here and nicked one of your jobs after taking one of your women!!!
Bigvern why have we got tachos and the silly WTD, it is to stop us working so hard or do you use one of those foreign magnets Ive been hearing about, there are lazy people all over the planet there are also hard workers ( mainly from Britain) all over the planet put that in yer pipe and smoke it,…///\
SwedishSteel:
I literally halved my salary while almost doubling my weekly working hours coming here from Sweden. Sometimes i get called a [zb] foreigner by skanky looking FLT drivers with horrible regional accents that I can hardly understand.
Why stay ?
Because my english yellowbelly wife gets homesick…
That’s right! I came here and nicked one of your jobs after taking one of your women!!!
SwedishSteel:
I literally halved my salary while almost doubling my weekly working hours coming here from Sweden. Sometimes i get called a [zb] foreigner by skanky looking FLT drivers with horrible regional accents that I can hardly understand.
Why stay ?
Because my english yellowbelly wife gets homesick…
That’s right! I came here and nicked one of your jobs after taking one of your women!!!
Oh hell man, please tell us you don’t drink our beer as well.
I’ve been to Sweden many times and seen the women there. Your wife must be something very special indeed.
Obviously I work in a different situation yet similar.
Most of the industy here needs imigrant drivers to get by, I myself being one of those imigrant drivers often get verbal abuse over the CB for being a foreigner yet they still ask this foreigner for directions when they are lost to which my reply is usually ‘find it on your own ■■■■■■’
In the terminal I work we have 2 English, 3 Puerto Rican, 2 Dominican, 1 Polish and about 5 Americans, if you include other haulers in the same terminal there are several Russians. we would have no drivers without them.
I can understand the views of drivers in the UK towards the influx of eastern block drivers working for lower pay, at least here they get the same pay and there is a shortage of drivers.
The reason we have so many foreign drivers here is because they realise the potential, and the brits dont.
Migrants/immigrants leave their own shores because they want a better life than the one they had. They can work for lower wages, because their out goings are less than ours, would a brit live like they do, i doubt it, i`ve seen them in holland looking for 3 bedroom houses when they couldnt afford a garden shed ( exagerrated ) but you get the drift. I believe they are not paid much less than you or I ( subbies, contractors, yes )
Our company employ foreign drivers, poles, bulgarians, russians etc, and when they begin, they are on £4000 less than us, but only for the probation period, then they are on the £30 grand like everyone else.
They work the same as us, and some are in fact a bit defiant, and wont be too hard pushed, but all of them are a lot better than a lot of the brit agency drivers.
When you see a job advertised, it states the wage…not the nationality, and if a foreign driver can do the job, then why not, there are a lot of companies, who exploit their foreign drivers cos theyre away from their home, and believe they can push them to work all hours, they are here for their own reason and will often work harder than the brits…remember …they have to keep their job, and cannot claim any benefits like you or I. Do you believe that they want to stay here, they would rather earn a good wage in their own land, speak their own language, enjoy their own food and luxuries. Dont believe that this country is great any more, its immigration needs to be addressed for people from outside the eu, we are controlled by europe, and all the while we are in the eu, will continue to be controlled by them, and that includes every country in that club.
fuse:
Bigvern why have we got tachos and the silly WTD, it is to stop us working so hard or do you use one of those foreign magnets Ive been hearing about, there are lazy people all over the planet there are also hard workers ( mainly from Britain) all over the planet put that in yer pipe and smoke it,…///\
