UK drivers angered by First Point delays
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• by Melanie Hammond A group of drivers and their families seeking a new life in the USA have joined forces and suspended payment to the company which said it could provide just that.
The four drivers signed up to the First Point International (FPI) truck drivers' programme after seeing adverts in the national press. But they have grown disillusioned with the company and its service and have serious doubts that they will ever see the promised Green Cards.
The drivers say that for the time-being they are not prepared to make any further instalments on the 25,500 payment demanded by FPI and its sister-company First Point Finance.
The men met at the first week of the training course organised by FPI at the Floridabased MTA driver school. On returning to the UK two of them were told by FPI that sistercompany First Point America had arranged employment for them with Missouri-based Pullen Brothers.
"This was in February," says the wife of one of the drivers, "but months later nothing seemed to be happening and we never saw anything in writing." One of the drivers phoned the MTA training school; he says he was told that the school could not discuss FPI with him and advised him to contact the UK Department of Trade and Industry.
The group joined forces and met representatives from the DTi and the US Embassy: they say embassy officials told them that under normal circumstances the Green Card process for a truck driver could take several years as drivers are not considered to be "skilled workers".
They then visited FPI in London. "When we asked FPI to show us my husband's job offer they could not find it," says one group member. "We've each decided to suspend any further payments." A number of other FPI customers have contacted CMraising their concerns. Drivers who were due to attend the first part of the MTA training course in September say they are still waiting to go.
FPI vice-president Philip Lyons admits that the company is "not currently sending clients to MTA". He adds: "Our clients will continue to be trained by one or more of the authorised training organisations with which we have an arrangement." II has also emerged that a number of participants have been contacted by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service with questions about their arrangements with First Point companies.
In a letter to CM, FPI maintains: "At all times we are fully compliant with US law and practice." But customers have reported that before they went to Florida for the first week of training FPI staff instructed them to tell immigration
officials that they were "on vacation".
Lyons denies this and argues that clients enter the US for the course on a non-immigrant visa. He says: "When they go on training courses almost all are on holiday from their UK jobs and many have taken the opportunity to enjoy the climate and theme parks of Florida."
• First Point International has categorically stated that the first 23 clients on the truck drivers' programme will have their Green Cards "by the end of January" and "some before Christmas", subject to passing their official interviews and medical examinations. It adds that "another 27 should follow on two to three months later and from then on it will be a regular event".