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The influx of foreign operators is revealed all too clearly by the latest Department for Transport (DfT) figures on traffic heading to from England to mainland Europe. A total of 725,300 goods units (trucks and trailers) travelling to the Continent in the second quarter (Q2) of 2007, of which only 128,200 vehicles were registered in the UK. Foreign-registered goods vehicles accounted for 387,400 crossings the rest were unaccompanied trailers.

Almost 3,000 more UK-registered vehicles crossed  over or under the Channel in Q2/2005 than in Q2/2007, with 10,000 fewer foreign vehicles. Not surprisingly, the 128,200 UK-registered trucks crossing to the Continent represent the biggest national group with 92,000 French-registered trucks a strong second, followed by the Netherlands with 63,200. Between them the EU's most recent recruits fielded 65,200 trucks to the Continent: 23,200 from Poland 12,100 from Hungary and 10,900 from the Czech Republic. Bulgaria and Romania, which were first included in the survey in Q1/2007, accounted for 1,800 and 3,500 vehicles respectively.

The survey is also broken down into countries of disembarkation. For goods vehicles France is by far the most popular destination, with 464,500 trucks landing there in Q2/2007, followed by The Netherlands (34,500) and Belgium (25,5000) . Denmark and Germany took about 1,000 apiece. For unaccompanied trailers the story is rather different. The Netherlands is by far the biggest player here, with 92,000  trailers landing on its shores, followed by Belgium (59,7000), Denmark and Germany (14,300) and France (13,500).

These figures obviously reflect where vehicles enter and leave the UK. With France having the vast majority of goods vehicles through its ports, it's no surprise that the Dover straits is their main route, accounting for 454,600 vehicles. The North Sea and the Channel have much lower traffic at 41,700 and 31,200 respectively.

For the purpose of DfT statistics the Dover Straits represents Dover, Folkestone, Ramsgate and the Channel Tunnel the North Sea includes all ports on the East Cost north of and including the Thames estuary the English Channel includes all ports on the South Coast west of Folkestone. Once again, the balance is completely different when looking at unaccompanied trailers. The North Sea dominates this traffic with 181,000 trailers passing through in Q2/2007. The Dover Straits took 10,500 and the English Channel just 6,300.