ROUTE: DOVER TO CALAIS OPERATOk: PO EUROPEAN FERRIES
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"I\
.1" ot all P&O's customers appreciate the rights of truck drivers to be pampered
.... as they cross the Channel.
"I humph... much too good for lorry drivers," one middle-aged lady passenger was heard to mutter as she spied the pristine surroundings and pink tablecloths in the waiter-service freight drivers' restaurant on the new Dover to Calais superferry the Pride of Burgundy.
The incident was related by Dave Jones a driver for Mike Beer Transport at Eythorne near Dover, a regular on all P&O's five vessels on the Dover to Calais run. CM travelled with Jones on one of them, the Pride of Calais, an older and bigger sister of the Burgundy.
BREAKFAST
The Pride of Calais can carry more than 100 artics and caters for around 68 drivers in its freight restaurant. A full English breakfast, brought to your table by a waiter, costs £1.95 and a fixed menu main meal £180, although the food changes only every three to six months.
Having to fork out to eat on the boat is one of Jones' few gripes with the service. "What is the point of charging anything?" he says. "The prices are so low anyway and hauliers are already paying hundreds of pounds a crossing," says Jones.
Another criticism is that there is not a separate truck drivers' lounge.
"They tend to chase you out of the restaurant after you've had your meal because they need to get it ready for the next crossing. And if it's busy during the summer with all the tourists and bus parties there's nowhere else to sit," adds Jones.
Other drivers we spoke to on the Pride of Calais back the idea of a separate lounge, even though the crossing takes only 75 minutes: "Apart from the restaurant there's nowhere to sit and read the paper without kids running around your feet," moans Doug Seymour, a driver with Chelmsford-based Seymour Transport. He would also like a dedicated money changing service for freight drivers. He says he can waste an hour queueing to change money in the summer, leaving him no time to rest.
However, the drivers we spoke to were happy with the service on the Prick of Calais and the other ships on the short sea route. Its popularity can be proved by the fact that P&O says it has a55% share of the freight on the Dover to Calais route— nearly 31,000 freight units used its ships during May. The drivers we spoke to liked it because they have time to take their 45 minute statutory break, a meal and even a free shower.
Mike Beer Transport uses the route for up to 15 trips to the Continent a week. It is particulary useful to the agricultural distributor, because the frequency of its crossings allow its drivers to complete trips to the Continent and back in a day. Few of its runs go further than Holland, Belgium and France, no further south than Paris.
On the day we met him, Jones was able to make it to the French capital, load and return home to Kent that night—all within EC drivers' hours requirements.
P&O's 25 daily return crossings in summer— three more than rival Sealinkand one every 45 minutes during the busiest periods, make it simple to turn up and board without booking. This will be even more hassle-free from the autumn when a new ticket booth check-in system, installed by the Dover Harbour Board, will do away with the need for drivers to get out of their cabs. And a camera-controlled loading system will get rid of long queues of trucks waiting to get on the ship.
DELAYS
The Single European Market, introduced on 1 January, has done away with irksome delays at both ports. Gone are the days when drivers disembarked at Calais and had to queue behind Czechs and Hungarians while ponderous paperwork was carried out. Passports are rarely checked these days and customs officers, apart from checking for drugs, are almost redundant.
E by Juliet Parish