The whole system stinks, say British drivers
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THE REBELLION by French haulage drivers stemmed from a deep frustration which is felt by international drivers throughout Europe. They are fed up with being messed around by corrupt Customs men and police. They are tired of being treated as second-class citizens.
This was the view put forcibly by the British drivers stranded in the French Alps I spoke to last Thursday. "Every week we are blocked like cattle," one said.
They all sympathised with the French drivers action to some degree, despite having been effectively kidnapped for more than a week. It is not just Customs on the Continent which are bad, but in Britain as well, drivers said. Dover was singled out for criticism particularly.
British drivers bitterly criticised the French police for harrassment. Drivers are stopped and fined for minor offences — £60 for not displaying a GB plate on the back of a trailer, for example — and are not allowed to continue until the fine had been paid.
French police are on a group bonus system, drivers said, which meant that the more fines they gathered, the more money they got for themselves.
Customs officials in France and Italy often ask for bribes to ensure smooth passage. The Italians have always been corrupt, drivers said, but do not ask for much. The French are getting greedy, they said, demanding "50 francs for a coffee". The British drivers stressed that the conditions they were suffering because of the blockades were much less significant than the reasons for the French revolt. They hoped the French drivers' action would bring benefits for lorry drivers throughout Europe.
I arrived at Calais at 8pm last Wednesday to find the port full to bursting with lorries. A roadblock had been set up early that morning. Customs men there had agreed to hold the lorries and in return the pickets allowed coaches and cars through the blockade.
Then I followed the haulage route to Italy, south to Paris, then by motorway to Macon, where you turn left for Bourg-enBresse and Mont Blanc.
There were reports that major roads in the Paris area were blocked. On the Ni south of Boulogne I came upon seven British meat lorries travelling in close convoy. Their companies, including Christian Salvesen and Swains of Stretton, had been telexed by the customer to rendezvous with one of its agents, who was to act as guide through the back streets of Paris to get to the meat market.
Paris at 2 am last Thursday was quiet, with lorries parked randomly all over the city. At one block Spanish tourists were asking a group of taxi drivers how they could get home.
Driving south on the A6, some lorries were running, but few. The motorway service areas each had about a dozen lorries parked overnight. The A6 was closed beyond Macon.
The really heavy build-up of lorries started after Macon. The closer I got to Mont Blanc, the longer were the queues of lorries. A dozen British trucks were among lorries lining both sides of the road outside the first Routiers east of Macon at St Cyr, which is a favourite halt of British drivers. Two more Routiers stops shortly after that were packed.
Just east of Bourg was the first major block I had seen since Calais. Sixteen lorries blocked the road to other trucks, and in front of them was a queue of lorries half a mile long. Strikers said the barriers were being organised by small hauliers, but that they had the support of the drivers and larger employers. I saw six similar roadblocks between there and Sallanches, 80 miles to the east and just short of the Mont Blanc Tunnel. This was where most of the British drivers were.
A roadblock at Pont d'Aim had a virtual stranglehold on the town centre, which was full of lorries. It was hard to get a car through never mind any larger vehicle.
From Pont d'Aim you start climbing the Alps on a two-lane road and then on the spectacular Autoroute Blanche. This is the motorway lorry drivers are not allowed to use at weekends to make way for money-spinning tourists. During my 90-minute drive in perfect weather in midmorning, this major route to Switzerland and Italy was virtually deserted. I saw a few cars and just seven lorries.
Sallanches, nearby Le Fayet and the motorway by-pass were swamped with lorries, like an army of occupation close to the front line. The British drivers were generally in good spirits. They had some sympathy with the French drivers and a few, like John Valentine of R. E. Fielding, declared total support for the French action.
But they were losing patience. They pointed out that Continental drivers were not seriously affected by the 1979 haulage strike in Britain. The French pickets had asked British and Italian drivers to help them man the barricades.
Many drivers were short of money, but most were able to take advantage of emergency meals laid on by the local people. The British drivers thought the locals were marvellous.
Terry Butler of Penkeen summed up their feelings when he said: "We do not want the people at home thinking the British Government are helping us. They are not." It had taken more than a week for anyone from the consulate at Lyons to arrive at Sallanches.
Drivers were very conscious of the financial loss facing their employers, and several feared for their jobs.
Penkeen had just two vehicles, both four-month-old Scania 142 Intercoolers, Mr Butler said. His boss was stuck on the other side of Mont Blanc.
Last Thursday, the drivers believed that the blockades would continue for at least four more days, probably a week. Many complained that it was unreasonable to expect them to stay but they would be sacked if they went home. Drivers on trip money, sometimes as little as £150, were particularly hard hit.
Still smiling though was owner-driver Bill Outterson of London, who was driving a rather rusty T-registered Fiat tractive unit, "I was going to buy a new lorry in January but I put it off for six months," he said. Another owner-driver, Ian Cell, reckoned the delay was costing him between £80 and £90 a day.
Severe frost at night meant that drivers who wanted to stay by their vehicles had great difficu lty staying warm. Diesel waxed and brakes froze up. Stuart Sutcliffe of James Watki nson, Keighley, said he had had to strip down the brake pressure release valve and brake pipes.
Drivers and their bosses will have their own memories of "Europe's greatest traffic jam".
Mine will be of Ivan Ball who, when I drove up, leaned out of his cab and asked wearily: "You another journalist?"; of Vernon Porter's five-year-old daughter Samantha, who had been brought along because Mrs Vernon was in hospital and who had been enrolled at the local school for 12 francs a day; and of Gordon Wood, who wanted me to explain to his gaffer why he had failed to tip in Italy two days before.
Cynics will say that nothing will come of the French strike. Customs delays are likely to continue and French police at St Omer, outside Calais, will no doubt go on indulging in the haulage equivalent of a pigeon shoot against British drivers. But hopefully there will now be a greater awareness of the problems facing international haulage drivers.