N ()el O'Rourke's worst trip on B&I Line's freight-only Liverpool to
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Dublin service was a few years back when the ship, unable to dock in Liverpool because of gales, spent three days drifting up and down the Welsh coast.
However, there was plenty of food on board and everyone, drivers and staff alike, stayed in good spirits. As O'Rourke, a driver for Shannon-based Cassin Road Haulage and a twice a week regular on the route, says: "It was a good crack."
B&I would probably say that supplying the ingredients for a "good crack" was a hallmark of its service. Drivers we spoke to on our two eight-hour crossings on sister vessels the Bison and Buffalo, praised the friendly service and good atmosphere. And, although the Irish Sea is notoriously temperamental, real storms are rare and our crossings were comfortable and stress free.
There is room for 90 artics or trailers and 50 drivers on both ships. No cars or foot passengers are carried. Free food, a cheap bar and duty-free help create a lively truckstop feel in the small but cosy drivers' lounge and restaurant. On the nights we travelled the fare included roast chicken, steak, lamb chops and cold meats. It might not have won gastronomic awards but it was well above greasy spoon standard The Irish haulage community is not huge and most of the drivers on board were regulars and knew each other.
In the three hours from 22:00hrs when the trucks began loading to when most drivers drifted off to bed, groups gathered to drink Heineken (about 30p a can), play cards or watch videos. £7-odd for a case of Castlemaine XVOC meant the duty-free hatch did a fine trade.
The big advantage of the Dublin to Liverpool service over its main competitorSealink's Dun Laoghaire to Holyhead route— is that the 10 hours or so on board allows each driver to have a night's sleep and drive a full shift the next day. Drivers share, usually two to a cabin though in summer three might have to squeeze in.
DRAWBACKS
The cabins are comfortable with a toilet, wash basin and shower. Drawbacks are that the lack of adequate air conditioning can make the sleeping quarters stuffy on a hot night and having no keys to the berths mean that drivers either have to carry their bags with them or risk them being stolen. Nobody used to bother until a few years ago when one or two went missing. Now the rule is, never leave valuables in the cabin, says O'Rourke.
As with many freight ships, the term rollon roll-off is a bit wide of the mark. Although the 1 January scrapping of customs in the EC has meant that paperwork arriving at and leaving the port is simplified, getting on board is still a two-hour chore. Trucks either have to reverse on or turn inside the vehicle deck to face the way they came (there is only one entrance). Any carrying hazardous cargo must negotiate a steep ramp up to the open top deck.
Each P&O ship does the return trip once every 24 hours, although on some Sundays there may only be one sailing. Hauliers are told on the Friday if there is only one sailing on the Sunday says B&I.
Of the two boats, the Buffalo, which is chartered by P&O subsidiary Pan doro, is the better ship, with a roomier and more modern lounge and slightly bigger, smarter cabins. MI charters the Bison, as part of an arrangement which includes Pandoro handling the stevedoring at Liverpool and 13&I at Dublin.
Rates on the ships are around £26 per metre on the morning crossing, which is scheduled to leave at 10:30hrs and £28 per metre on the evening trip scheduled to leave at 22:301u-s. Customers include many of Irelands's foremost hauliers including Walsh Western, McArdles and Meadows Freight. Few if any of the drivers we spoke to had a bad word for the service. They like the staff on the vessels and the Celts Club which allows them to collect tokens for a range of gifts including jackets, umbrellas and Tshirts
"The fond could be better," confided one driver when pressed. But, another pointed out: "Some of these guys complain about anything they get free."
by Juliet Parish The host for our Dover to Calais (Tossing with Stena Sealink was international operator Cmome International. Cyril Gardner, Croome's longest serving driver, had left home in Kent at 06:20hrs, picked up a driver and dropped him off at the company's Sheerness yard and arrived at Dover Eastern Docks at 08:15hrs, ready for the 10:00hrs sailing on the Fantasia.
He was off, unloaded, to Italy, to pick up rolls of cloth from a warehouse in Prato, near Florence, in a round trip that would take five days. Croome International operates 24 vehicles to the Continent with around 25° of its turnover generated in Eastern Europe.
With new customs procedures now—or rather the lack of them boarding and leaving the ship was "easier than ever" said
Cyril. "It's simple, there's no passport mritrol. I go straight to the export shed and book on, and then I'm called onto the boat."
Getting the necessary stamps and inspections from Customs used to take anything from 20 minutes to seven or eight hours, said Cyril. And, when we arrived at Calais and went down to Cyril's 32-tonne Volvo drawbar, we waited just 10 minutes and drove off the boat and straight out of the port.
That morning, the 13-year-old Fantasia was by no means full, it was carrying about 20 trucks with space for around 80 units The ship is one of eight operated by Stena on short sea routes, all of which have a freight. carryingcapacity of 40-80 artics.
On board the Fantasia has a separate cafestyle self-service restaurant for about 50 drivers. The separate facility met with Cyril's approval: "I prefer it, especially when the boats get full—a driver doesn't want to queue for three quarters of an hour to get something to eat, especially if you're first on ... and you're guaranteed to get a seat".
The full English cooked breakfast at £1.90, said Cyril, was good: "Only one problem this morning no-one switched the toaster on so there's no toast." The meal includes cereal and as much tea or coffee as you want. The price compares favourably with the £4.15 cost for car drivers in the main restaurant, but some Stena routes, including Newhaven to Dieppe and Southampton to Cherbourg, offer drivers free meals. Lunch or dinner main course on-board the Fantasia is £3.95 with four choices which change daily.
Driver entertainment for the Fantasia's one-and-a-half-hour crossing consisted of one TV. There are no showers or cabins on Stena's short sea routes.
POTENTIAL
A return crossing, said Stena Sealink freight service manager Andrew MacPherson, is around the £300-330 mark "but we look for the potential for repeat business. We're flexible but we don't see the sense of a price war".
All Stena ships, he said, are refurbished annually at a cost of around £3 million each. The smallest ship, the/n/4(1ot: is doubling its RO-RO lounge and will have showers, a dining and a rest area when it is refitted next February. The Dover to Calais route--soon to be challenged by the Channel Tunnel, carries about 60% of Stena's freight volume. There was nervousness about the Chunnel five years ago, says MacPherson. but "we're more confident now. We offer a different product."
But the ferry operators had better look out, for managing director David Croome must echo many hauliers feelings about the Channel Tunnel: "It's a guaranteed operation; we will be able to schedule our vehicles with absolute certainty to arrive in Paris at 08:00hrs the next day"
0 by Nicky Clarke For hauliers north of the border the North Sea Ferries link between Hull and Europoort, Rotterdam, cuts down on a lot of driving time although the crossing takes 14 hours.
CM crossed with Alex McKenzie, one of six drivers aboard the RO-RO ferry Norsea delivering computers into Holland for Currie of Dumfries."The European business was built up on computers," says McKenzie.
The drive to Hull takes seven hours, shaving four hours off the journey to Felixstowe. Further time has been saved by the scrapping of the T form since Single Market implementation—although McKenzie will still need his documentation as he is picking up a load to take into Sweden, a non-EC country
The Norsea is a passenger/freight vessel
with a capacity of about 80 trucks. Facilities are generally good but little is offered specifically for drivers Two tables in the restaurant are set aside for freight drivers and they do not have to queue with the general passengers to enter the restaurant.
However, once inside they have to line up with everybody else. Most drivers smoke, not always a popular move with passengers sitting nearby.
A common drivers' complaint is that the menu is rarely changed which does not matter to holiday makers crossing once a year, but leads to a monotonous diet for frequent users of the service. Special "Chef's nights" break the monotony An Italian special on the return journey was pronounced "delicious" by Johnny Patterson, a subcontracted Currie driver who is half Italian. Another driver, recently unemployed, makes the point: "Some complain about the food but now I'm working again I've had salmon tonight. You don't get that when you're on the dole."
SEARING HOT
Cabins, although compact, are neat and include shower and toilet en suite. But one driver complained that the cabins away from the perimeters of the hull are "searing hot". With two sharing the small space, there is certainly little room for a quiet night in.
For entertainment seekers there is a choice of two bars both with live entertainment. In the upper-deck bar an attractive girl in a black dress is leading a four-piece band in a tuneless version of "Rocking all over the World". With Celtic gallantry the Scottish drivers lead the singalongs: "Come on," she enthuses to the listless passengers, "copy these Scottish people over here!"
A cinema provides a choice of three recent films including the latest Michael Douglas offering, Falling Down, but it costs £2.80, CM joined Johnny Patterson's truck after docking at Europoort and stayed with him for a delivery at Gorinchem in Holland and a collection at Lanklaar in Belgium before returning on the evening ferry to Hull, this time on NSF's Norstar, a Dutch-crewed ship. Patterson works for Reliable Trucking which is sub-contracted to Currie.
"I spend my life chasing ferries," says Patterson, who usually tries to return the same day, "In the past four years I am the most sailed man working for my firm." The one thing he likes about travelling on the Hull ferry is the "short drive home from it".
North Sea Ferries also runs freight only services on some routes While the services are more focused toward the drivers, Patterson has experienced the monotony of getting involved in endless conversations about the job. "Some people just can't give it a rest," he says. For his own part he likes to read; Tolkein is his current favourite.
Once back at Hull the coaches and cars begin to leave the Norstar. Trucks are always last, even though the driver has a day's work ahead. It's a source of some irritation. "In the UK we're just tramps on wheels," says Patterson, "In Holland if you are a driver it's a respected profession."
D by Patric Cullinane