Turkish delight
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On the evening of 22 December 1998 I shopped on the 22:30hrs Zeebrugge to Dover ferry This arrived in Dover at around 03:30hrs local time. On the ferry I had noticed two British-registered lorries with Turkish drivers that were not displaying any road tax, Operator's Licence identity discs or trailer MoT discs.
While on the ferry I had bought a copy of Commercial Motor which had an article about an apparent "blitz" on non-EU drivers in British lorries (CM 10-16 Dec). In the article it clearly states that the DOT has said the practice should stop and that it is up to the police and VI to enforce the law.
When I came off the ferry the two vehicles were going through the non-EU lane at immigration—an event that in theory should never happen.
I stopped and asked immigration if they were prepared to take any action and the man I spoke to said that as far as he was concerned they had visas and were therefore legal.
I pointed out that the embassies have now agreed that visas issued to drivers should be used to drive their own vehicles (eg Turkishregistered) and that therefore the visas were not valid.
He literally just laughed at me and took no action.
I then went to customs, who had pulled these vehicles into inspection bays and were checking in the back of one of them. At this stage I noticed another vehicle, also not showing any 0-licence etc, and with a Turkish driver.
I spoke to the two customs officers at the back of the trailer and pointed out the seeming illegalities and asked them what they would do about it. They were quite indignant and told me to go to the police "if I had a problem".
As I was writing down the numbers another customs officer asked me what I was doing and the explanation that I was reporting illegal vehicles seemed to confuse him. He walked off shaking his head.
I then went to the police station in the docks. I
showed the officer on duty the article in Commercial Motor and a letter from DVLA in Swansea clearly stating that non-EU licence holders should not be driving British-registered HGVs. He also treated me as if I was meddling where I shouldn't be and said he would report the numbers to the traffic police.
He would not give me an assurance that he would do it immediately and he would not come out of his station and even look at the lorries himself. The fact that our conversation was going to be reported to various other people did not seem to bother him at all.
Later that morning I got hold of a contact at the Vehicle Inspectorate at Ware, Hertfordshire. He was very concerned and tried to get someone to look at the vehicles, but by then they had left the docks and were clean away.
Meanwhile there had been a heavy police presence outside Dover passenger terminal looking for people with too much imported Christmas booze.
None of the events I have described came as any surprise to me as I have had it all before, although this was the first time I was able to produce any documentation to back up my case.
The three government agencies I spoke to are paid by the British taxpayers and yet seem to have little or no interest in matters that are O.
4 outside their immediate brief.
Lorry drivers like myself are constantly being told that we have a moral obligation to report anything concerning drugs or illegal immigration that we may hear about.
Most drivers are only too pleased to help if they can, but we want to see this moral obligation to report wrongdoing of any kind applied to the very people who take every opportunity to blame innocent drivers caught up in events beyond their control.
I want this disgraceful situation exposed as quickly as possible. Various MPs and high-ranking government officials were informed of this situation nearly two years ago and virtually nothing has been done. The RHA, FTA and Brake have also been informed, The general public deserves protection from illegal operations such as this, and so do legitimate hauliers who are being put out of business by the unfair competition this generates.
Before long drivers are going to take things into their own hands and block these vehicles in at the docks. Before we do so, however, this letter and all the previous correspondence with MPs etc will be in the hands of national newspapers and television reporters, and I don't think it will be drivers that have any explaining to do. Nigel Harness, Canvey Island.