Eastern European Freight vehicles travelling to Britain through Kent ports have increased by 65 per cent in just two years, with traffic share from the Balkans alone increasing by more than three quarters. A Port of Dover survey of more than 2,000 lorries showed that in 2006,31 per cent of HGVs were registered in Poland and the Balkans. By 2008 this figure had risen to 51 percent. The Balkans accounted for just nine per cent of vehicles moving though the ports in 2006, rising to 16 per cent last year, while the percentage of vehicles from Poland grew from 16 to 23 per cent. The market share for UK- and Irish-registered lorries rose from 11 to 14 per cent from 2006 to 2008, while countries in north-west Europe, France, Germany, and Holland saw their share of the market drop from 45 to just 22 per cent.
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