READERS’ LETTERS REFLECTING THE INDUSTRY
70 TRUCKING Summer 2019 http://www.truckingmag.co.uk
Letter of the Month wins this fantastic Search-Impex model truck!
READERS’ LETTERS
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Write to: The Editor,
Trucking magazine, Kelsey
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TN16 3AG, or email
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Month will win a fantastic
model truck. We reserve the
right to edit all published
letters. No correspondence
can be entered into.No-deal Brexit?
Yes, please!
As an EU citizen, why did I vote
for Brexit? I’ll tell you. I am now
50 years old and have seen a
massive decline in UK-
registered vehicles working
on the Continent, and in that
time I have also seen a vast
increase in Eastern European
registered vehicles.
When I first started driving in
Europe, I was 19 years old. Life
was enjoyable and the pace
was a lot slower. The East
European trucks then were old
and held together mechanically
by the skill of the driver. They
used to turn the A61 in
Germany into a procession of
slow vehicles, all doing a
walking pace.
German road haulage was
done by German drivers driving
German trucks, French haulage
was done by French drivers in
French trucks, and so on –
including the UK and Dutch.
Now, 30 years on, you would
find it hard to find a person
from Germany, Spain or France
driving any truck doing
international work.
It seems to me that as the
EU has moved ever Eastward,
it has had a policy of having to
find these workers a fairly
low-skilled industry for them to
join – and from where I am
sitting, the EU hasn’t given a
damn about the workers from
the various other countries that
it is happy to cast aside to let
this happen.
Recently I spent three weeks
driving a truck in Europe, and in
that time I counted a grand
total of six UK-registered
commercial vehicles. Our Road
Haulage Association seems to
be worried about how a
no-deal Brexit will affect UK
haulage companies getting
permits, but it seems to me it
will not be the UK wanting
permits as we do not seem to
send many trucks into Europe
any more. It would appear it is
the East European hauliers that
have the most to lose.Of course, over that time of
30 years, I have seen my
wages fall considerably as this
source of cheap labour has
migrated across the Continent,
and in the UK we have a
system where if a Romanian is
resident in the UK for six
months, they can exchange
their Romanian goods vehicle
licence for an English one.
Surely that cannot be
condoned by the EU, as it
brings huge safety liability
into question as to whether
the driver can read any
road signs in English or any
other language?
If this is also possible within
the EU, then rather than being
an organisation that supports
the worker, the EU is just there
to support big business and
capitalism and profit, and does
nothing but exploit its citizens
for its own goals.
I feel the only hope is
Mr Putin sees the EU as a
threat and marches his Red
Army back to the East GermanPRIZE SUPPLIED BY SEARCH IMPEXTe l: 01332 873555 Fax: 01332 875757 Web: http://www.search-impex.co.ukLETTER OF THE MONTH
Signs of the times
Could you please pass on
my thanks to Bill Dean for
his article entitled Sign
Language, which was
published in the June
edition of Trucking?
As an English-language-
only Welsh person (as perborder. At least we all knew
where we stood in the ‘good
old days’.
So Mr Junker, as far as I am
concerned, I would love a
no-deal Brexit because the
EU has done NOTHING for me.
Michael Gardiner,
Diss■97 per cent of the population
of Wales), I fully endorse the
sentiment of the article.
The Assembly in Wales
count every school child as
“Welsh speaking” to boost
the numbers, although most
can only count to 10 in Welsh.
You can drive from Newport
to the Severn Bridge in bad
weather, and all the warning
signs are in gobbledygook.
How is this safe?!
The Nationalists in the
Assembly are so dogmatic,
they would say we all need to
speak Welsh to understand
the signs.
Anyway, I’m so cheesed offthat I just moved to England
and changed my driving
licence to ‘English only’.Hip-hip, horray!
Paul Matthews
By email