Seems to becoming a regular thing at the places i go to. Im not comfortable handing it over ,as far as im aware the only people your obliged to hand it over to are border officials or police, not some security guard or booking in clerk. Had to hand it in to a Dascher clerk last week for id purposes only, who took a photocopy .This i didnt like, opinions gratefully accepted, i m going to start offering my photo drivers licsense from now on i think.
I always leave my passport locked away in my cab, I never put it in my pocket just in case some desk jockey might want to see it. If they ask for my passport, I offer my driving licence. They accept that normally, all they really want is official photo ID.
There is one place I go to who will only accept a passport. They want passport, driving licence, ADR, Information in the event of an incident cards (latest version only). Funnily enough, I haven’t had an ADR gear check there, so far.
Oh, hang on, the desk jockey wanted one done once. But by the time I got called in to load it was too close to knocking off time. They looked at the check sheet, looked at the clock, asked me if I had all the right gear, to which I answered in the affirmative, naturally. So they screwed up the check sheet, filed it in 13, and loaded me. The desk jockey was not a happy teddy bear and started to rant. I just interrupted him in mid flow, which made him turn purple, told him to bell the warehouse. He did and went an even stranger colour, but gave me my paperwork so I left. I was expecting more grief off him the next time I went, but he’s been good as gold with me since then, almost polite even, at times 
was told at Portsmouth many years ago by HM immigration that they were the only people who could demand to see my passport and that if HM custom & excise want to see it tell um to go away and look up the rules any photo id will do for them i tried it once there and had a full rummage was there all day ,now thou they are all one HMRC
malcolmj:
i tried it once there and had a full rummage was there all day
I love it when your sitting in an RDC & someone is telling the story of how they were obtrusive with the Border Guard or Security at so & so place, giving it all the ‘Big I Am’ then in the next sentence they always say " They kept me there for 8 Hours, whilst they checked every bit of paperwork & searched every cubby hole on the tractor & trailer"
Makes me chuckle every time (most of the story tellers think its clever) I just find it amusing, a little bit of humility gets you on your way a lot quicker than a big bit of Awkwardness 
I’ve only had one place that wanted to hold onto my passport while i unloaded and another that wanted it for an id check. They both only wanted them for immigration purposes. I could have been an Afghan driving an irish lorry, loading in italy. If that was the case, They could have been in the [zb]. Some places have lost expensive loads by not carrying out checks.
With that in mind i’m not too bothered, Just a little.
I am tempted to buy a fake one just in case though.
Have the laws changed in the eu over the last 10yrs? because when I did Poland in the late 90s it was the norm in some places for the driver to leave his passport at reception and get it back after tipping.
regards dave.
martinviking:
malcolmj:
i tried it once there and had a full rummage was there all dayI love it when your sitting in an RDC & someone is telling the story of how they were obtrusive with the Border Guard or Security at so & so place, giving it all the ‘Big I Am’ then in the next sentence they always say " They kept me there for 8 Hours, whilst they checked every bit of paperwork & searched every cubby hole on the tractor & trailer"
Makes me chuckle every time (most of the story tellers think its clever) I just find it amusing, a little bit of humility gets you on your way a lot quicker than a big bit of Awkwardness
the other side of that would be retaining your own personal pride and self respect by not bowing down to some gobby bean counting jobsworth…each to their own?
dieseldog999:
martinviking:
malcolmj:
i tried it once there and had a full rummage was there all dayI love it when your sitting in an RDC & someone is telling the story of how they were obtrusive with the Border Guard or Security at so & so place, giving it all the ‘Big I Am’ then in the next sentence they always say " They kept me there for 8 Hours, whilst they checked every bit of paperwork & searched every cubby hole on the tractor & trailer"
Makes me chuckle every time (most of the story tellers think its clever) I just find it amusing, a little bit of humility gets you on your way a lot quicker than a big bit of Awkwardness
the other side of that would be retaining your own personal pride and self respect by not bowing down to some gobby bean counting jobsworth…each to their own?
I agree with you on the Personal Pride, but that ‘Jobsworth’ is the one that’s gonna screw your day. Now,I always show a ‘Take as long as you like attitude’ (I’m getting paid to sit there in my nice warm cab with a bed if I feel tired) & it seems to work most of the time.
Didn’t used to be like that though, had plenty of Run Ins in my time & come Christmas Eve, all bets are off !!! Lol.
i tend to have the same attitude to the cabbages,but i still wont bow down to them,and they have to be just as cheesed off going through the motions.
standard practice in most of the chemical plant and refineries in Europe to hand your passport in before gaining entry in to them
i swapped once with another driver at calais, i needed to get back early the next morning and he had a shorter backload, so we done the changeover, rigids these were, and off i goes onto the boat while he parks up for the night.
gets over the other side and plodding along the M20 and i noticed something behind the derv card on the dash… thats right its the other guys passport !!!
he did make it back the next day, apparently they cant stop you getting back into your own country.
Just a little tip, Just in case you lose your passport.
Keep a few copies in your kit and in a cupboard. It could save a lot of hassle.
I have never had a problem handing over my passport, the factory need some ID, it doesn’t have an address on it, there is far less chance of having your identity cloned than there is paying for a pair of Christmas socks by mail order.
There was an African immigration officer in Portsmouth in the days when you had to hand your passport in on the ship, he got sick of being asked if he had a passport, the joke wore quite thin on him. 
If you have an accident in the factory or the roof collapses, there is more chance of your family getting your remains home if they can contact the local embassy or consulate and give your details.
I give em my old out of date one. Never been spotted yet 
We used to be asked for our passports by the talibahn that we where moving stuff for (talibahn in this instance where not eastern european) but somewhere ending in ***istan
martinviking:
malcolmj:
i tried it once there and had a full rummage was there all dayI love it when your sitting in an RDC & someone is telling the story of how they were obtrusive with the Border Guard or Security at so & so place, giving it all the ‘Big I Am’ then in the next sentence they always say " They kept me there for 8 Hours, whilst they checked every bit of paperwork & searched every cubby hole on the tractor & trailer"
Makes me chuckle every time (most of the story tellers think its clever) I just find it amusing, a little bit of humility gets you on your way a lot quicker than a big bit of Awkwardness
I’ve never felt the need to display any humility.
I just treat them the same as I treat everyone else. Politely initially, if they seem up for it have a laugh n a joke, if not just let them get on with their job.
There’s no point being awkward with them, they can cause you a lot more grief than you can cause them.
GBD:
i swapped once with another driver at calais, i needed to get back early the next morning and he had a shorter backload, so we done the changeover, rigids these were, and off i goes onto the boat while he parks up for the night.
gets over the other side and plodding along the M20 and i noticed something behind the derv card on the dash… thats right its the other guys passport !!!he did make it back the next day, apparently they cant stop you getting back into your own country.
They just do some checks takes about 15 mins .went out 2 times per week for about a month while waiting for my passport to come back after having a visa attached . Also if you have a colour photo copy if the bar code is complete and not been folded they can scan that. Unless they really insist on a passport at a del / col I give my AA driving permit thing you can get from the post office that usually keeps them happy.
The Devil’s in the detail. You should only ‘surrender’ your passport to Immigration officials or the Police, in that your passport may be legally retained by them.
Passports can be requested (but not surrendered) as means of ID in foreign banks, hospitals, pharmacies shops in the case of large credit card transactions and hotels etc. In years gone by hotels ‘retained’ passports in a safe on arrival only until the police arrived and made a list of foreign guests but this seems to have ended now.
I load in one place where they would accept an ID card but as the UK doesn’t have one its passport please. You may find that a security guard might ‘retain’ your passport until you leave the site so as they know who is on site in case of emergency. The security guard cannot prevent you from requesting your passport back but you’d probably have to leave the site if you took it before you were loaded etc.
An issue far closer to home in my opinion is when you hand over your truck keys to staff in an RDC for safety reasons and they won’t let you have them back until you’ve gone into their warehouse and split pallets down and/or until your paperwork is completed.