Racial prejudice?
Page 48
Page 49
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
'Our drivers all carry Green Cards because we have to accept there are different points of view and we have to try and fall in with their line of thought.'
DAVID CROOME, CROOME INTERNATIONAL I eard the one about French police targeting belly tanks on British trucks coming through the port of Calais? Or the current spot-fining blitz by Spanish police on UK truckers carrying perishables? If anecdotal evidence is anything to go by, it's bash the Brits time.
Complaints by British truckers and lawyers of onerous and unfair spot fines in France and Spain are beginning to hit tidal wave proportions. We saw it in Belgium a couple of years ago and now the infection has broken out elsewhere.
Unfortunately there are unscrupulous operators on Continental runs who break and bend the law to gain market advantage. But margins are under pressure for everyone and there is no sympathy wasted on lawbreakers who try to beat the pack and end up getting caught. As several firms point out: "there are a lot of truckers who don't run legal".
But what is infuriating the longestablished firms who have done Continental runs for years is that drivers are being accused unfairly of breaking laws and are forced to pay spot fines to prevent their loads being impounded. They are also being fined for things that no longer technically count as offences but, because of the language barrier, they are unable to argue their case.
CM has already reported on the Spanish situation (31 March-6 April). Mike Hall of VBA Stevens in Milton Keynes says things have got so bad "we will have to contemplate seriously whether it is worth us sending any more trucks to Spain".
"We spend at least a million pounds a year with Spanish growers and it seems to us that the Spanish police are running loose and wild and are not being controlled by their government."
His resentment is based on bitter experience. In the past five months the company has been fined more than £2,000. In one incident near Pamplona the driver was spot-fined MO after police opened up his tachograph and said a seal was missing. A subsequent check by Volvo in the UK confirmed that the tachograph was completely in order.
Other hauliers of perishables on the Spanish run complain of similar harsh treatment. Some, like Ralph Davies, have opted for employing Spanish staff in their UK offices to smooth things over with police by telephone if their drivers ring in with problems. Others use Spanish companies as guarantors to avoid paying spot fines and then argue the case when it comes to court. And some try to bluff it out, with varying degrees of success.
One incident which brings home the difficulties happened to Transam Trucking during the Spanish leg of the Bon Jovi rock band tour. Mark Guterres takes up the story "We were doing the run from Barcelona to Madrid travelling in convoy of about eight trucks last autumn. Police stopped the two trucks that were clearly marked as British. They did not touch those with German marking or those which were unmarked.
"They took away the drivers' tachograph charts claiming they had not taken sufficient rest breaks and demanded a huge fine," he says. "Our drivers were being accused of offences which they had not committed. It was obvious from the tachographs that they had taken their breaks.
"We always run absolutely legal," Guterres stresses. "We have to plan our business months in advance and where necessary we fly out drivers if there is any risk of them not getting sufficient breaks during a tour. Our officials on the following coach got involved and after four hours' delay and a call to the police from our influential Spanish promoter we were allowed to continue. Undoubtedly we are in a privileged position and that, combined with the number of witnesses on the scene at the time, is probably the reason we were allowed to proceed.
"Incidentally a supply of tour tee-shirts is a long-established method of smoothing the path of all rock tour truckers across the Continent although for some reason German police are less keen," says Guterres.
But while Spanish police are causing fury, French police are driving hauliers to near apoplexy. They are coming down hard on trucks with belly tanks, although technically they are legal, and those not carrying Green Cards, the insurance documentation which drivers no longer need to have in law. Calais police have been particularly active, so much so that the British Consulate there is making representations over five recent cases.
One of them involves Curries of Dumfries in an incident in which a sub-contractor was fined £1,000 for having a top diesel tank.
Lawyer Stephen Kirkhright of Ford and Warren has strong views on the legal position of British truckers being stopped and fined over belly tanks: "Drivers use them to avoid buying dery abroad and having to wait up to 18 months to be reimbursed their VAT "But in my judgement," he adds, "those tanks are not governed by legislation on the carriage of dangerous goods (the ADR regulations), which are often cited, as drivers are not carrying it but using the fuel en route. I believe it is contrary to the Treaty of Rome because it is interference with the free passage of goods."
He came across an instance recently where a driver with a belly tank was stopped north of Paris and had to pay a £600 fine because his fire extinguisher, which is not compulsory, was smaller than "the regulations" permit. Another problem he has come across is drivers running into trouble for using out-of-date 0-licence discs. In the UK drivers are allowed to use their old discs until new ones arrive: French police take the line that in these circumstances drivers should pay French taxes.
David Croome of Croome International takes the pragmatic approach: "Our drivers all carry Green Cards because we have to accept there are different points of view and we have to try and fall in with their line of thought." Either luck or judgement has paid off. The company works extensively in France and has not had major problems.
John Lucy of Willam Lucy cites the Austrian authorities as sticklers for the law, particularly on documentation. They get hot under the collar over the fact that UK companies, unlike their Continental counterparts, do not need to carry a registration document for their trailers. It does cause delays but often a police shift change results in drivers being waved through.
The level of complaints about French and Spanish police spot-fining has finally spurred the Department of Transport into action. It is understood to be considering making representations to resolve the situation. As far as international operators are concerned, it can't happen too soon.
by Kathy Watson