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The UK land-bridge is like an umbilical cord linking Ireland to the rest of the EU. It is estimated that up to 80% of Ireland-EU traffic goes through the UK.
Getting our food and pharmaceutical exports to the EU can be difficult due to inclement weather, traffic chaos and hold-ups at ferry ports. These delays have an impact on the ability of drivers to reach their destinations within a regulated window of driving time. Compulsory rest periods are rigorously enforced across most of the EU and failure to adhere to them can lead to substantial fines or even a driving ban. And this is before Brexit and the delays it might add to the mix.
To get an idea of what a standard return trip from Ireland to France is like, the Irish Farmers Journal hitched a ride with DG McArdle International and headed for Calais. DG McArdle’s new depot is out in Damastown, west Dublin. The depot is adjacent to the M50 and a network of other motorways. It’s where they coordinate trucks, trailers and drivers. It’s also where all vehicles are calibrated and serviced on time.
“Reliability is critical to the business,” says David McArdle, managing director.
Noel Mannion from Loughrea is the man behind the wheel and we’re heading to Wiesbaden in Germany with a load of cheese.
Hold-up in Holyhead
We leave the depot at 6.44pm and there’s no delay getting to Dublin Port via the port tunnel. Nor are there any delays boarding the Irish Ferries Ulysses. By 12.15am we’ve arrived in Holyhead and begin disembarking. All goes well until the Stena Line ferry starts to unload and before you know it we’ve hit the first of many delays on this 48-hour return trip.
Anyone who knows Holyhead knows it’s not the easiest place to get out of and this is complicated by the fact that both ferries arriving from Dublin do so at roughly the same time – the same can be said for the two ferries bound for Dublin.
It takes over 40 minutes to get free of the port and we are off on the A55 and then on to the M56, with the M6 our next target.
At about 3.30am we have to leave the motorway as a result of a diversion and travel down narrow country lanes and through tiny villages. It’s eerie seeing all these huge lorries crawling in convoy through the countryside. I can only imagine the mood of those behind the wheels as their driving clocks tick down. Noel reckons the diversion ran for 15 miles before we rejoined the M6.
Resting-up
We had a free run down the M1 and M25 and by 5am it was time for Noel to take a mandatory rest period. He pulls in at a service station but the place is packed with trucks and it takes time to find a secure spot. The lack of secure parking bays and even lay-bys on UK motorways is a real concern to truck drivers who must takes mandatory rest periods inside a 15-hour period. Some drivers told us that unless they are in place at a lorry park before 8pm, it’s difficult to find anywhere to pull in.
And while there are limitations as to how secure the secure lorry parks are, insurance companies won’t cover the loss of diesel or damage to the lorry if they are not in the secure parks.
By 8am we are on the M20 towards Dover and traffic is light. There are roadworks on the M26. According to lorry drivers we speak to, the rumours are that one lane of the motorway is being prepared as a lorry park because of the long delays Brexit is likely to produce.
We reach the Channel Tunnel at 9.35am but it takes another 30 minutes to get through passport control. All the time Noel has kept a careful eye on his digital tachograph as all the delays have eaten into his driving time. After that, it’s plain sailing with the trip to Calais taking about 45 minutes and Noel continues on his way to Wiesbaden with his cargo of cheese.
The journey back to Dublin
There’s a new driver for the return trip. Paddy Neary from Dromiskin in Co Louth has been in the haulage business since 1988. He says driving is “like a bug – no doubt about it. The biggest change in my time is the tachograph, which means everyone is chasing time, but to be fair it has made the life of drivers much better.”
Paddy left Cologne in Germany at 5.30am, having collected a trailer of nonperishable food and general cargo. He came to Calais via Brussels and there’s no time wasted upon our meeting as legally he is only allowed 10 hours’ driving in a 15-hour period. Already he’s been on the road for five and a half hours, having used up his mandatory rest period in Ghent.
The return trip doesn’t start well. In Calais we queue for over an hour and a half to get through passport control. There’s no explanation for the delay. It takes another half an hour to get through French customs. All the time the clock is ticking down to Paddy’s mandatory rest period, when he will have to pull off the road for a minimum of nine hours.
We’ve still to face a dog patrol and UK immigration. Thankfully we are not selected for a random check or the heartbeat check, where stethoscopes are used to determine if refugees have hidden in the trailer. During the process we’ve also collected a stamp saying there are no refugees on board, vital in case anyone is discovered on the other side of the channel and the haulage company is landed with substantial fines.
The channel tunnel freight train takes 45 minutes but we wait another 15 to get the bus to bring us back to our truck. By the time we’re on the road it’s 5.45pm – a full four-and-a-half hours since we first queued at passport control.
Even if everything went perfectly for us, Paddy wasn’t going to make Lemington Spa before his mandatory rest time came into effect. Luckily there were no delays on the M20, M26 or M25 and we made the new stopover at Watling before his driving spread over time ran out.
It’s 6am and we are making serious progress on the M6 when news comes over the radio that the motorway is closed at junctions 15 and 16 due, while junctions 13 and 14 face long delays. We take evasive action at junction 12 by joining the A5. Now we face miles of roadworks, escaping M6 traffic and a single-lane country road.
Even though the traffic is crawling it still counts as driving time and, again, eats into Paddy’s 10-hour driving allocation.
We reach the A41, another single-lane, windy road where in parts the speed limit for trucks is 60km/h.
By 9am, with three’ hours driving done, we pull over at Whitchurch and have breakfast at the Midway truck stop. This counts as the 45-minute mandatory break that Paddy must take within his first four-and-a-half-hour driving period.
By 9.50am we are back on the A41 and heading for Chester. The A5 is our next target followed by the A55. We have plenty of time to admire the views out from Colwyn Bay as we lose 20 minutes to roadworks. We make the Irish Ferries Ulysses with 40 minutes to spare. Paddy can get a rest period and keep his digital tachograph in order.
If this is what it’s like before further customs checks are put in place as a result of Brexit, it’s clear traversing the UK land-bridge is going to get more complicated.
Lack of urgency frustrating
Verona Murphy is president of the Irish Road Haulage Association (IRHA). The association represents 3,700 licensed road hauliers and the 50,000 people who work across the licensed haulage sector, which contributes €6bn to the economy annually. She is frustrated by the lack of progress in getting this country Brexit-ready and says the Government must act with urgency.
“The country needs trained inspection staff across all sectors and we are talking about thousands of people. Dublin Port is the only agri-food border inspection post in the country. If Brexit goes through, the UK will become a third country. That will mean all agri-food must be inspected up to four times if using the land bridge to the rest of Europe. If the exports are from or to Donegal, it could mean even more checks are on the cards.”
Don’t get her started about Rosslare Port.
“Seventy per cent of its traffic is food-related and there’s an urgent need to upgrade Rosslare to Tier 1 status and get it Brexit-ready.
“There’s €50m of EU funding to do the work and with so much food-related traffic, it’s a no-brainer,” she says.
“Irish Rail operates Rosslare Port. They own land around the port and have sent a planning submission for an inspection park to the Office of Public Works (OPW), but the OPW is dragging its heels and hasn’t progressed it. The Government may have left too much to chance, particularly because of the lack of movement on Rosslare. Regardless of Brexit, an upgrade of Rosslare is essential and needs urgent action from Government,” she says.
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