Shop non-EU drivers, says VI
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by Karen Miles • Hauliers are being urged to report cut-price competitors who are using illegal, cheap eastern European drivers.
Bill Newberry, acting senior traffic examiner for the London area, says hauliers who know of non-EU drivers in British-registered trucks should contact him with the names and addresses of suspect operators.
Newberry, who is based at the Vehicle Inspectorate site at Edmonton, north London, has offered himself as VI co-ordinator on this issue. He promises to pass on tip-offs to traffic examiners working nearest to these operators' bases.
"We want to catch them (nonEU drivers) in the cab so that we can prosecute the driver and the British company for permitting it to happen," says Newberry. "If operators have any information on British companies using eastern European drivers then please, please contact me and I will act accordingly."
Estimates of the number of hauliers using illegal labour vary from around a dozen to 50 or more. So far the VI has warned only one company for using non-EU drivers, mostly from Romania. Braintree-based Delamode International was told earlier this month to stop using them them or face prosecution (CM 14-20 Jan).
VI interest in this issue follows clarification from the Department of Transport. In December it said non-EU drivers must not drive Britishregistered trucks and British embassies outside the EU were told to stop issuing visas to anyone without a British driver's licence.
The Drivers' Action Movement has promised to campaign on this issue. "With profit margins increasingly squeezed within the industry, the temptation to make considerable say
ings by employing non-EU registered drivers is clear for all to see," it says.
E Anyone who suspects a haulier of using illegal eastern European drivers should contact Bill Newberry direct on 0181 807 5445.