John Clark, managing director of Dover-based Clan International, records a
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week full of hassles with continental traffic, public holidays and mounds of paper...
Monday
Today is a holiday throughout Europe (except the UK) and as usual this has caused serious interruption to our business. This is the fifth major holiday in the past month and is probably the most disruptive period in our year. We need a common European policy on holidays to minimise this enormous waste of resources. Various ongoing discussions during the day with one of the major fuel card companies—it would appear that some fuel cards en route to us were intercepted and are being used by a rogue haulier to pay for fuel and supplies across Europe. The card company has known about this since February, so why are these cards still being used? Not a very secure system.. Typically much of my day is spent dealing with the vast quantity of paperwork that lands on my desk—where does it all come from?
Tuesday
Chaos overnight—major delays of up to six hours with Channel ferries and the Tunnel and M20/A20 used again as giant truckpark. Severe congestion resulting from yesterday's holiday and two days' worth of export traffic trying to ship out over one night. Spent most of the morning keeping customers informed and updated. Cross-Channel delays seem to have become a more frequent occurrence since the P&O/Stena merger. Discussions with our group workshops in Slough regarding the rebuilding of a fridge unit—problems obtaining body parts From the manufacturers are causing delay in completion. Tackle my overloaded desk and try to reduce the number of bundles...
Wednesday
More cross-thannel delays last night but not as bad as Monday night. Discussions with major customer regarding these delays and their effect on overnight timesensitive movement to Holland. Investigate rescheduling this movement to avoid peak cross-Channel times and implications for factory in UK and the repack operation in Ii Holland. Conversations (some heated) with trailer manufacturer regarding excessive supply delays—why do they quote delivery dates they cannot achieve? There should be some sort of penalty. Interview potential driver—looks like he crawled out from under a hedge. If this is his interview appearance, it can only get worse. Why does he think we would even consider entrusting him with 2200,000 of vehicle and load? Back to the paperwork...
Thursday
Meeting with customer this morning so don my sales and marketing hat. Meeting went well, customer pleased with service and talked about additional business later this month. On to meeting Eurotunnel to discuss setting up group account anc review existing service. Invited to lunch in Calais but severely embarrassed to discover had picked up wrong passport! More driver interviews—it is becoming much more difficult now to find reliable drivers, especially those with European and reefer experience. This situation can only get worse unless we can attract people into our industry. However, the last driver interviewed speaks six languages and has the experience—he is the one for us. Work on several quotations for new business. Am losing the battle with my paperwork; it has grown again.
Friday
Ferry company dispute in Calais with ground staff causing a few problems with import traffics. New driver left last night without warning or notice. He shipped in, parked, loaded vehicle up in yard and departed. This caused a few scary moments but the traffic manager came to the rescue. He organised a relief driver during the night and goods were delivered to the customer as required. Consider the impact of Trans-Action protest planned for Monday. While I agree with the reasons for the protest, I am not convinced that this is the way. We need to educate the public, not alienate them. We need to raise the image of our industry to reflect its importance. It is sad that many operators feel their trade associations are not able or prepared to represent their views and the only way to get ministers to take notice and listen is to adopt this high-profile type of protest. Back to my mountain of paperwork. Can I claim a subsidy, or is it weekend homework again?
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