Truckers across the Island are upset that their business is being taken away by what they call "illegal trucking".

At a general truckers meeting Tuesday night in Bailey's Bay, truckers stood up to express their concerns at the lack of business they have been experiencing due to people without licenses to do general trucking.

President of the Bermuda General Truckers Association Richard Foggo told his members they needed to be active when it came to illegal trucking.

He explained illegal trucking is when someone who owns a truck such as a landscaper or carpenter moves large items for someone instead of that person hiring a general trucker.

In the meeting, Mr. Foggo said: "I want to put illegal trucking issues forward to TCD. They say they don't have enough officers to attack this stuff. That's unacceptable.

"They're taking our work and our money and our livelihood. When you see an illegal truck doing illegal work, call it in.

"If he has a machine on the property, he's hired for machine work, not the truck.

One man said: "They are taking the money away from our families."

Another man said he often saw a certain large construction company's trucks being driven at night with materials on the truck that weren't related to the business.

Meanwhile Acting Director of the Transport Control Department (TCD) Jasmine Smith explained the process.

"If someone applies for a truck permit and they get a truck permit for a specific profession, they should be using the truck for that particular line of business.

"If they're using it otherwise, that's when it becomes illegal. If someone calls and lodges a complaint to say that truck A has got something on the side of the truck that says they do landscaping and they're moving furniture, we would take action."

Asked what "taking action" would entail, Ms Smith said: "They will have to be referred to the board and they could possibly lose their permit.

"Ideally what they've received a permit for use, they should be doing that. If not, they're using it wrongly. If your uncle has a truck for landscaping, it should be used for landscaping.

"If a trucker sees someone with a landscaping truck doing heavy moving, they should report it."