At the end of the day you can point your finger at the companies but if drivers weren’t stupid enough to do it then it wouldn’t happen, now I’m not being holier than thou, I’ve been one of those stupid drivers, I can say that I had to be because everyone else was doing it, but you & I both know that’s bollox, I didn’t have to run bent, I had a choice, I always had the ability to say no, either to what was being asked of me or to the job in question, but I didn’t, that was my choice, because I made that choice I didn’t whinge that I was being exploited, how could I? It’s a job & I was free to leave at any time, I wasn’t a slave shackled to the steering wheel. While I agree that the companies concerned have no place in the industry I have no sympathy whatsoever for any of the poor little lambs who CHOOSE to remain employed by them, now I expect to hear from Orys very soon, because they all seemed to be Eastern Europeans & I believe this fact is why this situation is now so bad. they came over from Poland or wherever, prepared to work all the hours under the sun for less money than the locals, now it’s come back & bitten them on the arse & they don’t like it one little bit, 5yrs ago Paddy would’ve been driving those lorries, he may have been working just as hard, but he would’ve got a lot more money for it, he wouldn’t have been crying to the authorities about it either, or crashing the lorry because he was tired, say what you want about the so called mad paddies, you didn’t often see one smashed up on the side of the road.
Has Ms Bell never considered a “transfer” across the pond - she’d need to order in a helluva lot of tea bags and custard creams though 
newmercman:
now I expect to hear from Orys very soon, because they all seemed to be Eastern Europeans
Here I am…
…to completely agree with you. This guys are morons, and this guys are double morons, if they come here and agree to get less money for the same job than the locals. That’s not good for locals, and not good for them (and not good for people like me, who are from Eastern Europe, but want to be paid decend money for the job done, and want to get a job becouse I am good, not becouse I am cheap) - it’s good only for the company owners.
But, as you could expect, I have to say a word to defend Eastern European drivers as a whole, altough that is not denying anything you said:
Please note that to this small two island countries came drivers from all around Eastern Europe - Poles, Slovakians, Czechs, Lithuanian, Hungarians, Romanians etc. Therefore there is plenty of them, and as among all big groups you have some percentage of morons. If the group is bigger, there is more morons in it. Simply.
So please take it into account and do not judge all Eastern European drivers by that.
orys:
newmercman:
now I expect to hear from Orys very soon, because they all seemed to be Eastern EuropeansHere I am…
…to completely agree with you. This guys are morons, and this guys are double morons, if they come here and agree to get less money for the same job than the locals. That’s not good for locals, and not good for them (and not good for people like me, who are from Eastern Europe, but want to be paid decend money for the job done, and want to get a job becouse I am good, not becouse I am cheap) - it’s good only for the company owners.
But, as you could expect, I have to say a word to defend Eastern European drivers as a whole, altough that is not denying anything you said:
Please note that to this small two island countries came drivers from all around Eastern Europe - Poles, Slovakians, Czechs, Lithuanian, Hungarians, Romanians etc. Therefore there is plenty of them, and as among all big groups you have some percentage of morons. If the group is bigger, there is more morons in it. Simply.So please take it into account and do not judge all Eastern European drivers by that.
Thanks Orys, I knew you wouldn’t let me down 
From your point of view the Eastern Europeans doing this sort of thing are a bigger threat to you than they are to the locals, you all get tarred with the same brush, it must be frustrating for you at times, not all Eastern europeans are the same, just as all Paddies are not thick, all Jocks are not tight & all Frenchmen are not a bunch of cheese eating surrender monkeys, ok scrub the last one but you get my point, just as not all Irish Hauliers are like that, many are, of course so are many British & Eastern European firms, not all of them have Eastern European drivers, well the Eastern European ones do obviously, but it’s widespread, to single out Irish companies with eastern European drivers is somewhat unfair I think
newmercman:
From your point of view the Eastern Europeans doing this sort of thing are a bigger threat to you than they are to the locals, you all get tarred with the same brush, it must be frustrating for you at times
Yes, sometimes it is. But I have to admit, that I got really good welcome from Scottish people and in UK in general and the frustrating incidents were sporadical (few agency jobs and McLellan’s transport only, while in McLellan’s they were ripping of the British people as well). I would rather consider being Polish as an advantage for me, because (at least in my case) it was more useful for me due to opinion of Poles being honest people and hard workers than problematic due to people willing to pay me less or treating me worse.
I think that although this country is far from being perfect, it offers great opportunities for people, who have some idea what they expect from live and who are not affraid of hard work. Even now with all that your blahblahblah credit crunch, I still consider it as a place which gives you much more great options and is much easier to live than the only European country which escaped the economical crisis - Poland (There is a Polish joke, that Poland is so rubbish, that even the credit crunch can’t be done properly there 
)
But I guess you were expecting some portion of moaning from me, so here you have it: What’s really annoys me is the Eastern Europeans itself. I no longer do any translations for Poles I don’t know, as they in 90% cases expect me to offer them a lower price. There is nothing more annoying for me that when I hear “I would have that service for quarter of that price back in Poland”. In the past I tried to explain to them, that we are no longer in Poland, and I have to earn British wage to be able to pay for food and bills at British prices, but they seemed to do not understand that. So now I am only telling them “so go back to Poland and find someone to do it at Polish price there”.
orys:
So now I am only telling them “so go back to Poland and find someone to do it at Polish price there”.
I couldn’t have put it better myself
I hope VOSA, and every enforcement agency throughout europe has seen these clips.
Every vehicle operated by these toerags should be pulled as many times a day as possible, the fines, and delays would put them out of business, in hours.
I have no sympathy at all with the drivers allowing themselves to be bullied into working the insane shifts they have done, and bleating after the event, they should also be prosecuted, and barred from working in the industry.
I like most can not claim to never have bent the rules during my career, but never on this scale.
I hope the sight I saw at Perry Bar tonight will serve as a warning to those who deliberatly flowt the rules as it was totaly full of vehicles that had been parked up by VOSA.
Just what Joe public wants to view all drivers as criminals with no respect for authority,.
It is very easy to sit here, in the comfort of my chair in a house that is heated in a nice quiet area and having food in my belly…This would obviously have a bearing on any comment that I was to make and it would be so easy to criticise the drivers.
People do desperate things in desperate times(drivers perhaps) It is those that exploit them to their own ends that need hanging out to dry, the operators, I expect the paddys who exploit these drivers are in the same situation as myself, only with more money! It is Paddys greed that perpetuates all of this, if the drivers were not owrking illegally for him, they would be doing in some other industry, you cannot change the individuals who do the work, but you can stop the facilitators…Unless of course the facilitators are paying money to local/state officials to turn a blind eye.
I would say that the Officials in Ireland are ‘bent’ as are the leading Hauliers and their representatives.
This is only my opinion, my personal opinion, I have no proof of this, other than I can use my common sense in the way in which it should be used 
So please don`t delete this, if this is deleted it would only serve to stifle the freedom of speech and collude in the furtherance of Irish hauliers running bent and continueing to exploit human beings.
Thankyou.
They do say Truth is stranger than fiction, and its a shame
that some one who wishes to work is misused and then
has the misfortune to be classed as a criminal , this is
happening in all of Europe not & just where shown alone:
and yes some drivers are doing this of their own free accord but
not all in fact you will find the percentage is lower than one thought.
trip money is ok, if it’s decent enough. lets say a firm offers £550 for a legal 5 day trip and you are greedy, you want six trips a month, then that’s ok.
but if it’s a case of needing to do six trips to make a wage, then that’s [zb].
i don’t rate the so called planner much. he needs two days notice so you can take some time off.
The chief of the IRHA what a ■■■■■■
att:
It is very easy to sit here, in the comfort of my chair in a house that is heated in a nice quiet area and having food in my belly…This would obviously have a bearing on any comment that I was to make and it would be so easy to criticise the drivers.
People do desperate things in desperate times(drivers perhaps)
But come on. The guys earn less than minimum wage for that. Who forces them to work as a drivers? They can go work in McDonald’s and be better off! And their language should not be a problem, people with Down syndrom works in McDonald’s…
I’ve been in the same position that they were in 2005. When I came here to work as a driver and could not find any driving job, I took a job where I was washing portable toilets and I can’t say that it’s anything wrong with that… I dare to tell that their position do not makes any excuse for breaking the law!
Off course, the bosses should be dealt with for that. But the guys at the bottom are also to blame!
orys:
att:
It is very easy to sit here, in the comfort of my chair in a house that is heated in a nice quiet area and having food in my belly…This would obviously have a bearing on any comment that I was to make and it would be so easy to criticise the drivers.
People do desperate things in desperate times(drivers perhaps)But come on. The guys earn less than minimum wage for that. Who forces them to work as a drivers? They can go work in McDonald’s and be better off! And their language should not be a problem, people with Down syndrom works in McDonald’s…
I’ve been in the same position that they were in 2005. When I came here to work as a driver and could not find any driving job, I took a job where I was washing portable toilets and I can’t say that it’s anything wrong with that… I dare to tell that their position do not makes any excuse for breaking the law!
Off course, the bosses should be dealt with for that. But the guys at the bottom are also to blame!
Take away the facilitators and it would not happen, not rocket science is it?
Just the same as taking out the drugs barons/importers, hit the problem at source, the drivers are just the symptoms and will be replaced by others, it does not solve the problem, but taking away those who provide the opportunity does.
att:
Take away the facilitators and it would not happen, not rocket science is it?
Just the same as taking out the drugs barons/importers, hit the problem at source, the drivers are just the symptoms and will be replaced by others, it does not solve the problem, but taking away those who provide the opportunity does.
Illegal driving it’s not the addiction, so it’s not the same problem. Noone or nothing forces you to be a lorry driver. If you can’t find the proper job, find it somewhere else.
At the end of the day, it will be the driver, who will kill you when fall asleep behind the wheel, not the haulage company owner.
orys:
att:
Take away the facilitators and it would not happen, not rocket science is it?
Just the same as taking out the drugs barons/importers, hit the problem at source, the drivers are just the symptoms and will be replaced by others, it does not solve the problem, but taking away those who provide the opportunity does.Illegal driving it’s not the addiction, so it’s not the same problem. Noone or nothing forces you to be a lorry driver. If you can’t find the proper job, find it somewhere else.
At the end of the day, it will be the driver, who will kill you when fall asleep behind the wheel, not the haulage company owner.
Maybe I am not explaining what I mean clearly enough, I was just using the drigs situation as an analogy.
Take away the hauliers you take away the problem, simple…You cannot take away the drivers, there will always be drivers willing to do this. I am not condoning what they are doing, merely trying to solve a problem effectively and within financial constraints…You can keep on fining drivers etc. But you cannot if they have nowhere to work like this, by removing the corrupt hauliers you are nipping it in the bud so to speak.
att:
Maybe I am not explaining what I mean clearly enough, I was just using the drigs situation as an analogy.
Take away the hauliers you take away the problem, simple…You cannot take away the drivers, there will always be drivers willing to do this. I am not condoning what they are doing, merely trying to solve a problem effectively and within financial constraints…You can keep on fining drivers etc. But you cannot if they have nowhere to work like this, by removing the corrupt hauliers you are nipping it in the bud so to speak.
Yes, I am fully with you on that. But I also think, that you have to punish the drivers. Because this coin has two sides, and even if you take away the hauliers, the driver, who thinks that he can’t be punished for doing that, will continue to do that elsewhere.
Hauliers have to be punished for that, but drivers have to pay for their sins ALSO.
So you have to work from both sides: If you stop the driver who is doing that, do not stop on charging HIM but follow the case up to the haulier. But I think it’s wrong to charging hauliers and let the drivers free on that.
steadymabo:
:shock:
Yep saw one this morning M4 eastbound just short of Windsor and he wernt making any ground with the traffic he was in
11.30 am 12/12/2009
pmsl
nick2008:
steadymabo:
:shock:Yep saw one this morning M4 eastbound just short of Windsor and he wernt making any ground with the traffic he was in
11.30 am 12/12/2009
pmsl
That’d probably suit him. After all you don’t want to cover too much distance while you’re taking your “45” do you?