Not a fine idea...
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Regarding the suggestion to charge hauliers £2,000 fines for stowaways caught in trucks coming in from the Continent.
What a daft idea! Why don't the people who make these rules spend time travelling in the trucks so that they can get a proper idea of what the drivers are expected to endure what with rules and regulations that are necessary, without daft buck passing like this one.
One of our drivers was recently on his way to Madrid. He had stopped overnight at the BP truckstop in Bordeaux. In the morning, when coming back from his breakfast, another driver told him that the trailer was moving slightly.
He called the police; they duly came four hours later. In the meantime the immi grant had escaped through the hole in the roof he had cut to get in.
The police carted our driver off to the police station and after another two hours they grudgingly gave him a report to explain why he had a great hole in the roof.
So we had to pay for the repairs to the tilt; the driver was six hours behind for his delivery; the immigrant was heading in the wrong direction anyway; and if we had been expected to pay a fine of £2,000 it would have just about made our day.
Linda V Frood,
Tiptree, Essex.
PS: Where's our compensation for the French lorry blockade?