Operation Stack

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Glad i ain’t being held in that.

I was wondering though.

What do these folk who are, do for food,toilets, etc.

Thanks

Mark

2

I’ve been stuck in “stack” a few times. The most recent a couple of weeks ago. It wasn’t full blown Operation Stack. It was when the berth problem at Calais first happened. Never the less, it was still a 2 hr wait on the M20. I noticed a porta loo on the side of the motorway. I presume this was for drivers. I didn’t risk it though! As for food, I usually have a few bits in the fridge which gets me out of a hole if i need it. The authorities are pretty good at letting people know whats happening well in advance on signs, traffic reports etc. Last time, the signs were warning me about it as far back as Cherwell Valley, M40. So, there is usually enough time to fill up flask etc before grinding to a halt.

3

I got stuck in operation stack near the San Sebastian border for 3 days. The rescue services bought hot soup, baguettes and bottled water around and we were near enough to a village to use the church facilities so not a bad time all said a good trucking multi national party all round. :wink: :laughing: There was even a fuel tanker that came round so we could run our night heaters the only problem was we had race cars on board going for testing in Portugal and we missed it. :confused:

4

I heard on the Radio that Operation Stack had now gone to phase 2

Whats that about then?

5

can some one post on here what is meant for those of us who do not
know what op-stack phase 2 is please.

6

Ladytrucker679:
I got stuck in operation stack near the San Sebastian border for 3 days. The rescue services bought hot soup, baguettes and bottled water around and we were near enough to a village to use the church facilities so not a bad time all said a good trucking multi national party all round. :wink: :laughing: There was even a fuel tanker that came round so we could run our night heaters the only problem was we had race cars on board going for testing in Portugal and we missed it. :confused:

thats a bloody big queue up to calais! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: .
i was stuck on the autoroute near lyon in the nineties french strikes (makes it sound good :laughing: :laughing: ) for 5 days. took me a fortnight to do barcelona. AND there werent any portaloos there… :laughing: :laughing:

7

Phase 1 - when the M20 is shut between J11 & J12

Phase 2 - when M20 is shut between J8 & J9 in addition to phase 1

8

absolutly ridiculous is this anybody setting of tomorrow cant looking forward at the prospect of sitting in that… also euro drivers weekends are short enough without having to set of earlier to sit in a queue :exclamation: :exclamation: :exclamation: :exclamation:

9

JB:
i was stuck on the autoroute near lyon in the nineties french strikes (makes it sound good :laughing: :laughing: ) for 5 days. took me a fortnight to do barcelona. AND there werent any portaloos there… :laughing: :laughing:

That brings back memories, tho i was stuck for 5 days near Reimes, and we was near a restaurant so for the first few days it wasn’t so bad, no gsm phones then, so didn’t have the boss on the phone every five mins, tho the guy i was working for at the time, Bob Steward, thought i was pullin a fast one untill it reached the tv news and the Sun got involved, by the third day everyone was gettin a bit fed up, tempers were gettin a bit frayed, think it took me about two weeks to do an Italy in the end Got stuck in the Spanish one as well, think that was a year or so later, an that was not a very pleasant experiance either.
Steve

10

Rang P&O this morning was told approx

6 hour wait on M20
3 hours to board
4 hour crossing ('coz of queing for berth)

:open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

11

that sounds about right sean, my mate arrived at calais yesterday afternoon at 1430… and shipped this morning at 0330 :open_mouth:

12

north surrey haulage:
Rang P&O this morning was told approx

6 hour wait on M20
3 hours to board
4 hour crossing ('coz of queing for berth)

:open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth:

Boy am I pleased that I decided I didn’t want any part of that and have chosen to take the week off instead. :wink: :sunglasses: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley:

13

Sorry Neil but they expect this to last for about 2 months :open_mouth: until they can get the linkspans back in action in Calais :cry:

14

as i said before anyone traveling out tomorrow must be dreading it and having to leave earlier to sit in a queue :frowning: :frowning: :frowning: its not on

15

north surrey haulage:
Sorry Neil but they expect this to last for about 2 months :open_mouth: until they can get the linkspans back in action in Calais :cry:

It won’t be as bad as this for the whole 2 months though Sean. The current situation is because as well as Calais 7, the one involved in the accident, being out of action Calais 3 was out on Tuesday and Wednesday, Calais 8 was out on Thursday and Friday. That coupled with the weather has resulted in the current long delays. Calais 5 will be out on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday next week then it should only be Calais 7 still off line. When it was just 7 out of action delays were not that long, it is 4 weeks on Tuesday since the accident and Operation Stack has only been in place when other berths have been out of action for checking. I’ve crossed half a dozen times sincve the incident and haven’t queued yet to get into either port and apart from once the delays were only a couple of hours.

16

My driver goes over either on Friday night or Saturday

He rings Dover before going and the queue’s have been so bad that he has only gone over (last week & it took him 16 hours to do the round trip) in the last 5 weeks.
So I’ve been buying fuel on my credit cards here

Stupid British diesel (said in a homer voice) doh!

Seafrance have stopped doing fuel runs until further notice :open_mouth: :question:

17

NorthSurreyHaulage, thanks for answering my question about phase2,
you say that the delay is now quite longer dover-calais-dover.what
about ramsgate-ostend.or dartford-villisingen/zeebrugge would these not
be during this problem period quicker when you take these ferrys,

18

Mark and Pete, are you the Brit brothers :laughing:

19

brit pete:
NorthSurreyHaulage, thanks for answering my question about phase2,
you say that the delay is now quite longer dover-calais-dover.what
about ramsgate-ostend.or dartford-villisingen/zeebrugge would these not
be during this problem period quicker when you take these ferrys,

not viable for me mate I only use them for fuel run to Belgium

20

i got to maidstone at 5.15 to join the que on friday morning and got on the train at 14.30 you can’t sleep because your moving up inch by inch. came back in on sat morning at 3.30 it will take days to clear the backlog, the train were only running three an hour. it 's the people of kent i feel sorry for why can a large holding area not be built for times like this ,then when not used for stack there is a truckstop,to replace ashford when it has houses built on it.