R achael Webb has a very clear idea of where she
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was when she realised the haulage industry needed to change; she was at Knutsford Services. It was 8 March 1994—ironically, International Women's Day. Webb pulled up in her R3fo, grabbed a sponge and made her way to the showers. On opening the door to the unisex washing area she was confronted by a room full of half-naked men, bemused that a woman would be wanting to use the facilities. "I think that was the beginning of me getting active because I thought someone should be doing something about this," she laughs.
It might seem funny in hindsight, but this tale highlights an important point. As Webb says, any female truck driver you speak to will say you can cope with a situation like that, but that's not the point. It's a case of providing more facilities which are adequate for everyone. And this belief lies at the heart of what the Socialist Truck Drivers (STD) stand for: equality.
But, in the haulage industry, the Orwellian principal seems to prevail: everyone is equal, but some people are more equal than others.
STD was formed at the time of the fuel protests in 2000. Webb and Mick Rennison, both committed socialists and drivers, got together in order to make people realise that truckers deserved a better press than they were receiving.
Skilled workers
"We believe we are not recognised as skilled workers with the stresses and strains of the job," Webb explains. "Our experience is that truck drivers are underpaid and work very, very long hours. This will only change if we do something about it."
At one time or another Rennison and Webb have both worked for cowboy operators and know perfectly well the difficulties drivers face and the pressures they are often put under to run bent. "I will do a fair day's work for a fair day's pay, but I will always be honest with employers," says Rennison, who currently works for Securicor Omega in Southampton as an agency driver. "I won't run bent and we encourage people not to. I see it as part of my socialist principles."
As well as its two founders, STD has six active members across Europe. They help distribute newsletters and information to the 70 people on STD's mailing list. A Lao subscription fee and donations keep the leaflets and information flowing and the organisation has no intention of resting on its laurels.
"At the same time as having trade union links we are building rankand-file contacts with drivers in places like Denmark, Luxembourg and Sweden, in order to make certain the ordinary truck drivers are involved in international campaigns," says Webb.
Top of the list of campaigns for the STD is a pan-European minimum rate of pay for all drivers. Years of experience in international haulage has hardened their resolve to fight for this, particularly as they believe certain companies are exploiting drivers from the former Eastern-bloc countries more and more as margins become ever tighter.
Foreign drivers
And STD's campaigns come no more vocal than in its feelings towards hauliers who use cut-price foreign drivers. Webb says these firms pose a "total threat" to the principal of pan-European equal pay. A recent STD newsletter claims that the average pay for many of these Eastern Bloc drivers is around £300-500 a month. Webb says this is a disgrace and a capitalist abuse of vulnerable workers. STD wants its members to raise the problem with these drivers and make them aware that what is good pay back home is a pittance in Western Europe.
As well as this, STD backs the idea of the 48-hour week, but only with no loss of pay. It is also calling for the introduction of a salary for drivers, to cover them if they drive 48 hours in a very short period of time and are unable to do more work.
Then there's the stowaway problem. Webb experienced this first-hand when three illegal immigrants were discovered in her trailer at Dover. The disparity between immigration and EU law was laid bare to her: "In a way I was blamed and was assumed guilty of not observing the trailer the whole time between Milan, through Switzerland to Dover. But Eli law requires me to have proper rest away from the truck. How can I, if immigration say I have got to keep the truck under observation?"
Although Webb and Rennison agree it is not a driver's job to be a policeman for the immigration services, Webb disagrees with Rennison's belief that getting into England is relatively easy for a stowaway. She also thinks these people are not naturally aggressive— problems arise when truck drivers take matters into their own hands.
Racist policies
"I think what happens is drivers get aggressive and arm themselves and approach stowaways," she says. "However, I do feel it's totally unfair that I should be an unpaid frontier guard for the government's racist policies."
But as Webb is well aware, these beliefs would be pie in the sky without some serious clout behind them: "We alone are never ever going to bring about change. We advocate working with the T&G. [Transport & General Workers' Union]. They and other trades
unions will bring about change. Being inside a union is everything. Outside you are going to be ignored." Webb says she is proud to work alongside the T&G and help it in its campaigns for drivers.
Rennison adds that unions have had a bad press over the last few years because they were perceived to have done very little for their members. He believes people lost faith in them but says that is now changing as drivers realise that it is the trade unions that ultimately can push for improvements: "We would advise all drivers to join a union and push it to do what it is there to do."
Rennison and Webb know they have their critics and are perhaps viewed as slightly odd by many professionals in the haulage industry. But given the chance, they reckon they can change this attitude. "They [the haulage industry] are paranoid about us!" laughs Webb. "There are some truck drivers with a red-neck attitude. But you sit down with them and you find they don't know a lot about what is happening."
As well as the agency work, Rennison manages to find the time to write freelance material and has even written a currently unpublished novel, not surprisingly about an international truck driver.
As if that wasn't enough, in addition to his STD responsibilities he has submitted plays to the BBC including, bizarrely, one about the life of serial killer Charles Manson.
It comes as no surprise that Webb is a committed Marxist—but this Marxist has a penchant for Willie Nelson. Describing herself as a pensioner, she would like to move to Spain, the country she fell in love with when working on the Continent. But that will not happen until she finally retires which, with all her responsibilities, is not imminent.
"People who plan their lives do not understand that international drivers have a very unstructured life," she says. "In a way I like that—it gets in your blood."