Accident with Foreign HGV in UK

TripleH

I'm completely ignorant on these things but am sure there must be a record of the vehicle entering and leaving the country (if it has) as we have now left the EU?

It also seems unusual for a Greek lorry to have made it this far (but I could be wrong).

Is it possible to do some investigating yourself Op? Are you near a major port? If you can find a bit more information to pass on it might help you?

AdrianC

TripleH said:

I'm completely ignorant on these things but am sure there must be a record of the vehicle entering and leaving the country (if it has) as we have now left the EU?

Nothing to do with the EU - the UK had a permanent opt-out from joining Schengen, so contrary to the Brexit campaign's misrepresentations always had total control over UK borders.

But, while the UK has had the HGV Levy in place since 2014, with all non-UK registered HGVs entering the country being required to pay a toll, it's been suspended between August last year and next July, allegedly because of Covid. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hgv-road-user-levy

There's no explicit entry and exit logs (let alone route logs) of vehicle registrations kept for trucks, any more than for cars or air passengers.

It also seems unusual for a Greek lorry to have made it this far (but I could be wrong).

They're not as frequent as HGVs registered in certain central European nations, where the European logistics industry's based, but there's absolutely no reason why they wouldn't.
There's quite a few Turkish trucks come here, of course.

Get over the channel, and you see a fair few trucks from further east and into the Caucasus. UK visa requirements always put an artificial barrier in the way of the Russians or BieloRussians or Kazakhs or Azerbaijanis crossing the channel, but of course that would never have applied to Greeks or Turks.

TripleH

Thanks AdrianC.

I've never seen a Greek number plate in the UK or NW Europe before hence why asked.

route101

AdrianC said:

TripleH said:

I'm completely ignorant on these things but am sure there must be a record of the vehicle entering and leaving the country (if it has) as we have now left the EU?

Nothing to do with the EU - the UK had a permanent opt-out from joining Schengen, so contrary to the Brexit campaign's misrepresentations always had total control over UK borders.

But, while the UK has had the HGV Levy in place since 2014, with all non-UK registered HGVs entering the country being required to pay a toll, it's been suspended between August last year and next July, allegedly because of Covid. https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hgv-road-user-levy

There's no explicit entry and exit logs (let alone route logs) of vehicle registrations kept for trucks, any more than for cars or air passengers.

It also seems unusual for a Greek lorry to have made it this far (but I could be wrong).

They're not as frequent as HGVs registered in certain central European nations, where the European logistics industry's based, but there's absolutely no reason why they wouldn't.
There's quite a few Turkish trucks come here, of course.

Get over the channel, and you see a fair few trucks from further east and into the Caucasus. UK visa requirements always put an artificial barrier in the way of the Russians or BieloRussians or Kazakhs or Azerbaijanis crossing the channel, but of course that would never have applied to Greeks or Turks.

Turkish lorries are quite common here, always wondered why. I have noticed a lot of Serbian registered lorries recently, heard Russian and Belarusian are more common, maybe to do with brexit. Never seen a Greek one. 

wild666

Should have taken as many details as possible reg number front and back any logo on trailer  and a photo of the driver, that's safer than just the reg number from either front or back of the HGV. Maybe investing in a good quality dash cam I looked some up for a friend that are recommended by the police they start at around £220.

tower

Hi, Quick update, Essex police have been in touch and can’t trace the HGV on their database. They said it maybe a Foreign HGV and not even insured. So much for following their advice at the time of the accident..

user1977

tower said:

Essex police have been in touch and can’t trace the HGV on their database. They said it may be a Foreign HGV 

I thought everybody already knew that, the Greek plates being a bit of a giveaway?

BOWFER

user1977 said:

I presume it can be traced, otherwise there's not much point in having the plates at all. But the police aren't going to offer a publicly-funded free international research service for the benefit of drivers' civil claims.

I stand to be corrected, but I think it depends on how 'linked' the countries are.
For example, when I imported an Alfa Romeo from ireland in 2000 I was told to keep the irish plates on for the full 6 months before changing to UK plates.
And during that 6 months I could ignore speed cameras, as the UK system wasn't 'linked' with Ireland and any photos of cars with Irish plates were thrown out.
Of course I'm sure if there was a serious enough offence, like death by dangerous driving, there would be more effort.
But for simple/minor road offences and a bump, I don't think any effort is made.

Dr_Crypto

I’m sure the police could trace it through the Greek police if they needed to but I don’t think they will for a minor accident. 

DB1904

BOWFER said:

user1977 said:

I presume it can be traced, otherwise there's not much point in having the plates at all. But the police aren't going to offer a publicly-funded free international research service for the benefit of drivers' civil claims.

I stand to be corrected, but I think it depends on how 'linked' the countries are.
For example, when I imported an Alfa Romeo from ireland in 2000 I was told to keep the irish plates on for the full 6 months before changing to UK plates.
And during that 6 months I could ignore speed cameras, as the UK system wasn't 'linked' with Ireland and any photos of cars with Irish plates were thrown out.
Of course I'm sure if there was a serious enough offence, like death by dangerous driving, there would be more effort.
But for simple/minor road offences and a bump, I don't think any effort is made.

Wouldn't work these days if you insured the vehicle. Who gave you that poor advice?