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.TruckNetUK.com
Page 17
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Rikki Chequer, community manager of TruckNet UK, reports on current hot topics at the driver forum.
I open this week by returning to a subject we have covered before: Middle East drivers. An American 'long-haul' driver has started to use the TruckNet UKwebsite and is more than interested in tales from the older hands. So much so that he has requested more stories about driving to far-flung places so he can write them up and maybe get them published in a US trucking magazine if only to show just how easy the US drivers really have it.
Driver Mike Hinton was arrested in France and sentenced to six years in jail; his brother is using TruckNet UK to ask for help. "Mike had collected a load of mixed goods from a central warehouse in, I believe, Barcelona, consisting of machinery, training shoes and pallets of stone tiles," he explains. "When the load was examined, the tiles, secured to the pallets with steel banding and shrink wrap, were found to be concealing 2.4 tonnes of cannabis." Members of TruckNet UKwill recall this is similar to the situation John Vasey found himself in a few years ago (Vasey was eventually cleared of knowingly carrying the drugs). They have pointed Mike Hinton's family towards individuals and organisations that may be able to help.
The BBC1 programme Casualty got a little stick from some members over this week's episode where a d ru nk skip driver crashed into a taxi. One driver says: "Lorry drivers are always getting bad press all over the place. I'm getting sick of it. If we all wenton aone-day strike the country would grind to a halt." Another member points out thatthe programme has been running that long they have probably covered just about every conceivable accident during its run.
"Is it worth the risk?" asks one member in the Owner and Fleet Operators forum. His boss is looking at contracting out the company's in-house transport and this TruckNetUKmember is looking at whether it is worth him trying to start up and take on the work.
Other owner-drivers have chipped in with some sound advice. Will he try to become a small operator-and if so, will he succeed?You can follow his progress on the forums.