bigvern1:
Shame they don’t give out metals for vigilance. You’d need 2 jackets to pin them all on.
Thank you for that another proof of lower standards in Britain. For you such behaviour like daily vehicle checks deserves a medal. In Poland it’s normal everyday thing 
No Tomasz…I think you do it to prove how fantastic you Poles are, and how you are sooooo by the book it’s unreal.
I was with a Polish driver today who was showing me the route i will be covering for a short time. He has a different story to what you say Orys, very different.
Tells me the country is going down hill fast. He also tells me that all the men do is want to fight over in Poland. Being a HGV driver over in Poland is a waste of time as he is earning 3-4 times more then he would in Poland. His words and not mine “British transport is good, very good”
I will ask him if he knows you 
caledoniandream:
The whole conversation about European trucks being worse maintained, can not be proofed with accurate figures.
In Holland they don’t have the six week inspections, but I don’t think the Dutch trucks are in a worse state than British trucks.
Manaufactures have worked over the last 20-30 years that hard to make trucks low maintance, automatic greasing systems, Disc brakes and much higher quality materials.
But Britian still holds on to an old fashioned system based on the quality of 60’s trucks (British maybe?)
The underlying reason is realy something else, A Dutch driver for example has always been required to be half a mechanic, change lightbulbs, adjust drumbrakes, check fluids, repair wiring etc., and change tyres.
It has been always part of our training, for the simple reason that the Dutch driver by law is responsible for his vehicle and is required to assure his vehicle roadworthy.
They don’t use any check list what the driver can fill out in his cab while its raining and stick to fingers up to the world.
they don’t believe in that, the Dutch saying is “A man a Man, A word a word” this means if you get stopped the officer don’t want to see that you can write and fill a little pink sheet in.
No he checks the truck and hold the driver responsible, and the driver get personal charged.
don’t come with the nonsense about bald tyres, they are 100% legal (law is changing / or has changed on that) as long as there is no damage to the cords or the cords are visible. (by the way that doesn’t make them legal to go over the border)I worked and work for British companies and worked in the past for several Dutch and German companies, and yes there have been Black Sheep everywere, but it never has showed me the advantage of the 6 weeks inspections.
If you look at the fleets and the state of it, than with 9 times more inspections, the British average truck and fleets is not 9 times better than a continental operated fleet.Realy if I look weekly at the bills for the 6 weekly inspections, the extra’s are mainly Basic stuff the driver could have repaired and / or reported weeks ago.
it sill annoys me after 16 year in Britain to pay GBP 9.00 to replace a Brake light bulb, because “It’s not my job” attitude.it’s another disadvantage of operating on British plates, but we work in this country so we adapted and swallow.
Personally,I am not saying that,for example that Dutch trucks are unroadworthy.
Far from it in fact.
But,the crucial point for me,is the fact that six weekly inspections cost me approx £170.00 per month.
Johny foreigner need not bother with such bothersome twaddle.
And that’s just one example of how the eastern euro trucks are having a good chuckle at our expense.
mickyblue:
I was with a Polish driver today who was showing me the route i will be covering for a short time. He has a different story to what you say Orys, very different.Tells me the country is going down hill fast. He also tells me that all the men do is want to fight over in Poland. Being a HGV driver over in Poland is a waste of time as he is earning 3-4 times more then he would in Poland. His words and not mine “British transport is good, very good”
I will ask him if he knows you
No, you are making this all up, you are hallucinating the whole thing.
Well, in “Orys-world” anyway. Poland is Paradise on earth, dont’cha know!
It’s not surprising that Polish cars are in such poor mechanical condition, given the hammering they take from the appalling potholed and rutted roads. One of the most common road signs in Poland is this, meaning “ruts”.
I found that photo on TruckNet, I’m just checking to see who first posted it so I can give him the credit.
Why…
It’s…
ORYS!
i hear a rumour? that pekaes are getting rid of their trucks, and just gonna do the whole “spedition” thing.
are they subbing out to the bulgaians, romanians and the like?
Oh no!!
I fear you have opened the gates of hell/orys styles
Harry Monk:
mickyblue:
I was with a Polish driver today who was showing me the route i will be covering for a short time. He has a different story to what you say Orys, very different.Tells me the country is going down hill fast. He also tells me that all the men do is want to fight over in Poland. Being a HGV driver over in Poland is a waste of time as he is earning 3-4 times more then he would in Poland. His words and not mine “British transport is good, very good”
I will ask him if he knows you
No, you are making this all up, you are hallucinating the whole thing.
Well, in “Orys-world” anyway. Poland is Paradise on earth, dont’cha know!
It’s not surprising that Polish cars are in such poor mechanical condition, given the hammering they take from the appalling potholed and rutted roads. One of the most common road signs in Poland is this, meaning “ruts”.
I found that photo on TruckNet, I’m just checking to see who first posted it so I can give him the credit.
Why…
It’s…
ORYS!
No Vince…ALL roads are like this in Poland now. Far better than ours.
zippo:
Personally,I am not saying that,for example that Dutch trucks are unroadworthy.
Far from it in fact.
But,the crucial point for me,is the fact that six weekly inspections cost me approx £170.00 per month.
Johny foreigner need not bother with such bothersome twaddle.
And that’s just one example of how the eastern euro trucks are having a good chuckle at our expense.
It isn’t just the Eastern Euro trucks having a chuckle at our expense though, is it?
The whole of Europe, East and West, are having a chuckle at our expense.
Harry Monk:
mickyblue:
I was with a Polish driver today who was showing me the route i will be covering for a short time. He has a different story to what you say Orys, very different.Tells me the country is going down hill fast. He also tells me that all the men do is want to fight over in Poland. Being a HGV driver over in Poland is a waste of time as he is earning 3-4 times more then he would in Poland. His words and not mine “British transport is good, very good”
I will ask him if he knows you
The gent was a nice bloke though. We had a long chat for 12 hours about Polands history and what they did etc etc etc. Some of it i was interested in and some of it i just went into a daze.
did you know in the last 20 years the country has just come out of communism
mickyblue:
Tells me the country is going down hill fast. He also tells me that all the men do is want to fight over in Poland. Being a HGV driver over in Poland is a waste of time as he is earning 3-4 times more then he would in Poland. His words and not mine “British transport is good, very good”
Well, there is, as usual, some truth in this.
I try to explain it briefly:
I will ask him if he knows you
I doubt so. I am still to meet driver who TODAY earns 4 times than he could make in Poland in the same kind of job.
Harry Monk:
Well, in “Orys-world” anyway. Poland is Paradise on earth, dont’cha know!
I don’t know, could you elaborate on that? Or at least go and dig in trucknet search engine to remind me where I told think like that? 
It’s not surprising that Polish cars are in such poor mechanical condition, given the hammering they take from the appalling potholed and rutted roads. One of the most common road signs in Poland is this, meaning “ruts”.
I found that photo on TruckNet, I’m just checking to see who first posted it so I can give him the credit.
I posted it, as despite this sign being far from “one of most common”, it’s not unheard of. See, unlike your vision of Britain, I am aware that my country is not perfect.
ORYS!
[/quote]
I am all right with that, but don’t you dare link pictures of some other forum users here. They are unhappy if you use their own stuff to prove something not convienient to them And I guess even you could learn some new vocabulary in English from them
bigvern1:
No Vince…ALL roads are like this in Poland now. Far better than ours.
Off course not ALL roads are like this in Poland now. There are still bits like that one I filmed back in 2007 or something: youtube.com/watch?v=XQOZvJhG3aA
But AFAIK this is the last bit of the motorway that we have in such condition (and it was even degraded from motorway to dual carriage road after completing A4 to German border).
But you are right, bigvern. During last 10-15 years, we managed to build quite a few good standard motorways, and the new ones are far better than in UK - because they are build up to the newest specifications, not to specifications that were OK 30 years ago, so nothing wrong with Britain on that.
But, as I said here on other occasion, there is very big difference between West Poland and East Poland. Most of the new investitions are in Western Poland. Eastern Poland still lags behind.
Here you have road from Warsaw towards Baltic Countries:
as for one of the most important international routes in region its well below standards. Full of patched potholes, single carriageway etc. But if you move the movie forward to around 2:15 you will see that even in this darkest corner of Poland something is done.
So I think that over recent years we made amazing progress with roads (not without EU help, off course, the funds for infrastructure are the biggest share of what Poland gets, as it’s geografical position makes it important transit country). And as you can see, driving still can be relaxing (despite some occasional idiots like the one in around 5:30).
Harry’s memories about bad Polish roads just prove that he hasnt’ been to Poland for some time. What goes on on local roads is a different story, but main routes are now very often of better standard than British ones.
orys:
Harry’s memories about bad Polish roads just prove that he hasnt’ been to Poland for some time.
Yes, this is true.
And, as I’ve said before, I like Poland, it’s a nice country, the food is good and Poles are very friendly, even if a very tiny minority come across as being a bit bombastic, self-righteous and superior. 
Harry Monk:
And, as I’ve said before, I like Poland, it’s a nice country, the food is good and Poles are very friendly, even if a very tiny minority come across as being a bit bombastic, self-righteous and superior.
So if you stop to try make me look like someone who always says that Poland is perfect, who cannot admit that something might be wrong and stop imputing me things that I never said, then you might start to like me maybe?
NAH!
Simon:
zippo:
Personally,I am not saying that,for example that Dutch trucks are unroadworthy.
Far from it in fact.
But,the crucial point for me,is the fact that six weekly inspections cost me approx £170.00 per month.
Johny foreigner need not bother with such bothersome twaddle.
And that’s just one example of how the eastern euro trucks are having a good chuckle at our expense.It isn’t just the Eastern Euro trucks having a chuckle at our expense though, is it?
The whole of Europe, East and West, are having a chuckle at our expense.
But can we blame other people for this?
I think as long as nobody stands up against it, it will not change.
And nobody will stand up against it, as small or big companies cannot survive under the wrath of the least Democratic organistation VOSA (however I must admit that they have come some way the last couple of years)
The 170-190 GBP per month extra per vehicle is a tax we have to swallow and adds to pricing British companies out the market.
in the end it has to come from somewhere.
caledoniandream:
But can we blame other people for this?
I think as long as nobody stands up against it, it will not change.And nobody will stand up against it, as small or big companies cannot survive under the wrath of the least Democratic organistation VOSA (however I must admit that they have come some way the last couple of years)
The 170-190 GBP per month extra per vehicle is a tax we have to swallow and adds to pricing British companies out the market.
in the end it has to come from somewhere.
Another problem of stopping this tax would be the ‘Road Safety Lobby’.
As soon as the RHA and cohorts tried to raise the issue, the reply would be all about the even greater carnage on our roads. As a direct result of cutting back on 6 weekly inspections which would clearly mean totally unroadworthy wagons running amok and slaughtering poor innocent road users instantly, if not sooner.
Simon:
As a direct result of cutting back on 6 weekly inspections which would clearly mean totally unroadworthy wagons running amok and slaughtering poor innocent road users instantly, if not sooner.
Which already happens in Poland, that does not have 6 weekly inspections, if you believe Trucknet
Hang on a minute guys.Inspections are really set at 6 weekly for everyone, and they do cost £170-£190 per month? I’m not so certain this is true for everyone.
Mike-C:
Hang on a minute guys.Inspections are really set at 6 weekly for everyone, and they do cost £170-£190 per month? I’m not so certain this is true for everyone.
they cost the price of whatever parts are needed.
limeyphil:
Mike-C:
Hang on a minute guys.Inspections are really set at 6 weekly for everyone, and they do cost £170-£190 per month? I’m not so certain this is true for everyone.they cost the price of whatever parts are needed.
Well even thats a stretch Phil. i’ve had a vehicle back from inspection with a sticker on the dash saying “needs oil”…i.e they didn’t put it in !!! I thought inspection intervals where different for different operators. And i’m pretty certain (although not 100%) that six weekly inspections do not work out to a cost of £170-£190 a month. I’d love to hear from someone who knows first hand.