I think the bigger companies are doing their best to keep it legal these days but some of the smaller lads subbing for the big fridge outfits are definitely still at it.
A few of the bigger companies are happy to have somebody based in England because you can do the longer distance work and round trip in 6 cards. Quite often you’ll be turned in the UK and wont see Irish soil that much.
As for who’s worth trying it really depends on what you want. If you’d be happy working benelux you could do a lot worse than try Hannon in the north For long distance work try some of the fish hauliers in the west if Ireland.
I do happen to think some of what dieseldog has said rings true to a certain extent. … if you look at the subbies for certain big companies they all favour 4 series scanias for some reason, and mushrooms keeps coming to mind.
Take lukes advice and stick to the obvious big guns in the south. My first choice would be dixons everytime.
My cousion works for ballinard now running 100% legal does uk ireland and a fair bit denmark and sweeden. Money not great but he said its about average for the job ovrr thrre.
I saw him last week he was parked up on a 24 at Thurrock he lives in Tipperary and has his 24 wherever needed and home every other week for his 45.
He has done a fair bit of euro over the years his kids are grown up and he has no mortgage.
He’s no glory boy doing it to say he’s something special as he is doing euro and he’s not desperate for money and I know for a fact he wouldn’t be going day and night for what the pay is.
He recons the program was edited to make the firm look worse than it was and in reality most of the running bent was running from the yard to the boat which at the time most irish hauliers crossing the Irish Sea were doing.
Working in the south you’ll be paid euros into an Irish bank account. You’ll also need to register for tax purposes.
Most firms will have had English drivers on the books at some point so will know how to sort you out.
Just out of interest why are you thinking of working out of Ireland?. If you are young, free and single and want to see Europe then there is plenty of opportunities. You will work harder, not necessarily bent, and you won’t make your fortune but work it like Luke does and it can be very rewarding. Just be sure it’s what you want and don’t expect to see home that often. Lying in a truck half way across Europe with no idea of when you’ll see home can be a pretty lonely and depressing place to be.
I like to travel, sick of uk work and the parking and traffic problems and it’s nice to get away from it from time to time, yes I’m single , not too young at 42 lol , I find English companies don’t do much of the same type of work overseas and tbh I’d rather be driving a Irish or foreign plated vehicle in Europe as I feel your more accepted than a English one who tbh not many like and only seen as a taxi to the promised land, when I worked for the Dutch the driver rapor was good and I had a lot of good workmates and associates of all nationalities, which was better than I’ve had in a long time working with an English outfit , so yep that’s why!
xxicelandicxx:
I like to travel, sick of uk work and the parking and traffic problems and it’s nice to get away from it from time to time, yes I’m single , not too young at 42 lol , I find English companies don’t do much of the same type of work overseas and tbh I’d rather be driving a Irish or foreign plated vehicle in Europe as I feel your more accepted than a English one who tbh not many like and only seen as a taxi to the promised land, when I worked for the Dutch the driver rapor was good and I had a lot of good workmates and associates of all nationalities, which was better than I’ve had in a long time working with an English outfit , so yep that’s why!
Well I’ll definitely agree that the Irish are doing much more work into continental Europe than UK firms so in theory finding a job should be easier. Just bear in mind that the Irish economy is on its arse and jobs of any kind are scarce. Wind the clock back 10 years when the economy was booming and lads were leaving the continent behind because there was just as much money to be had driving a tipper and being home in time for tea. Companys were struggling to find drivers for the continent and it was fairly easy to get that kind if work.Things have now gone full circle and with the tipper works all but gone men have had to look at going back onto the continent.
I’m over 10 years away from euro work now but I’m not sure I ever found a UK plate a hindrance of any sort. Continental drivers do have a different attitude to domestic ones and will mix much easier. It doesn’t matter where your from they’re just more sociable.
Get yourself registered on www.irishrigs.com and ask for advice before you make the journey. You might not like what you hear but at least you’ll have some idea as to what you can expect. It will however give you an insight into some of the smaller hauliers who you might not otherwise get to hear about.
My advice would be to try the bigger outfits as listed by Luke but don’t rule out the smaller men either. Make some calls before you leave to gauge the availability of work and tell them that you are planning a trip over. Head out with a plan of who you are going to see and have your kit in the car because its just possible you could be in the right place at the right time and get a start.
I hope you find yourself something decent and it works out for you. Just don’t under estimate how much of a difference that extra boat makes to the job.
I think my dream type job is not going to happen, the one I was going to go for is not going to give me the funds tbh ,I knew they prob be lower but €100 a day = £85 at moment that’s it , no night out money, no parking exp, not paid when parked even when away but I didn’t think of the bank transfer charges to sterling as well so that means I’d be coming away with £380 ish a week , so is this how it is, if anyone can shed some more Light on it I’d be gratefull
xxicelandicxx:
I think my dream type job is not going to happen, the one I was going to go for is not going to give me the funds tbh ,I knew they prob be lower but €100 a day = £85 at moment that’s it , no night out money, no parking exp, not paid when parked even when away but I didn’t think of the bank transfer charges to sterling as well so that means I’d be coming away with £380 ish a week , so is this how it is, if anyone can shed some more Light on it I’d be gratefull
Try Caffery international ,Carna Transport and Porfreight they are all looking for international drivers most companies over hear are paying 100-130 euro a day.There is plenty of work but the money is just not in it.Bet of luck anyhow.
The bank transfare fees can be negated by banking with barclays, open a current account, and also a euro account they don’t charge fees to change it into stirling as moving funds from your euro account into you current account is free, but i think they charge a fee of £7.00 per quarter(3mths) So if you also got a pre pay credit card for euroland, you could avoid charges for hole in the wall and purchases whilst abroad
I looked into that side of things sometime ago, but if you can get paid 120-30 euro per day for each day you are out on the road regardless of if parked up or not , although it ain’t great money, it aint as low paid as some english firms are paying,Good paying jobs still exist, but are rare as rocking horse turd ,
And i would say there’s zero chance of stumbling across them
As said the haulage industry is on it’s knees and has been for some time, and johnny forgiener haulage companies aren’t really helping the situation
Never mentioned about having to have an irish address to me, TBH i can’t see why that would be , they even told me they have a few english drivers on the books, but did say that i would at some point have to take the truck back to their yard in IRL , and you don’t get your own unit, so if you go home for your week off someone else will be using that unit
tommy t:
Never mentioned about having to have an irish address to me, TBH i can’t see why that would be , they even told me they have a few english drivers on the books, but did say that i would at some point have to take the truck back to their yard in IRL , and you don’t get your own unit, so if you go home for your week off someone else will be using that unit
You do need an Irish address to allow you to register for tax and NI. Most companies sort you out with an address though.