On to Part Two, on being tipped in Oesingen my relaod is in Memmingen Southern Germany. It is about a 4 hour drive away I head east through Switzerland to cross the border at Bregenz in Austria once into Austria the German border is about 30 minutes away depending on the traffic through Bregenz.
Crossing the border at Bregenz is fairly easy as I’m empty, I write my current mileage on the ticket I got as I entered Switzerland and hand it in to the booth, when getting the ticket I entered my fuel card so on leaving it is just a case of handing over the ticket, getting it stamped and keeping a copy for our records. This crossing point closes at 17.00 and doesn’t reopen until 07.00 however there is another crossing point a couple of km’s away if you want to leave outside of these times but only if you’re empty.
The drive through Bregenz makes a change from all the motorway driving in Austria it is only the motorways that are tolled you can buy a Go box at the border and it works on a pay as you go basis, we have a box from AS24 that covers all the countries we go through so only one box on the windscreen compared to some who have 4 or 5. A tunnel takes you up out of Bregenz and over the German border from here just over an hour will see me in Memmingen This is a regular re-load for us they won’t load me today but if you ask you can park in their yard overnight.
Burger King is next door if that’s your thing although on the edge of Memmingen a 10 minute walk will see you with a choice of a couple of restaurants and shops.
Tuesday morning sees the first problem of the trip, the back load is for Dublin but we are unable to get a ferry direct to Ireland due to them all being fully booked so I have to go via the UK. As it is short notice for the T forms they will not load me until lunch time, once the customs process has started. At 1 o’clock they have the customs paperwork started so begin loading, it takes about an hour to load 22 pallets of frozen bread, once sealed it’s round to the Zollamt 3km away to collect the T forms and have the seal checked 30 minutes in there and I’m away.
From here I could get to within an hour of Calais but unless you can get to the secure parking in Calais it is best to stop at least 2/3 hours away depending which way your coming from I am hoping to make a services around Thieu in Belgium.
The autobahn system in Germany is currently undergoing a massive amount of work to bring it up to date and is commonly known as Stauland, but here the car is king four lane motorways will routinely have no overtaking for HGV’s which means you can find yourself going up hill at 30km/h because at the front is someone pulling 40t in 450 Mercedes. I make good time to Stuttgart and then the first stau(queue) is announced on the radio about 25km ahead of me it is approx 6km long but will be longer for HGV’s as here all the lorries pull into the inside lane and it is not uncommon for the traffic info to give the queue length for cars and then a separate length for HGV’s and sometimes the difference can 4 or 5 km. Luckily I can turn north after Stuttgart before the queue towards Heilbronn bit of a risk because last time I was here they were building a new bridge at Heilbronn causing queues of around 6 to 8km, tonight it is flowing ok but eastbound it is at a standstill for approx 10km.
My route back will take back up through Luxembourg Belgium and then round Lille to Calais, I stop at Cappellen in Luxembourg for diesel still the cheapest place on my route but the prices have risen sharply pump price is now 1.39euro a litre compared to 89cent last summer, the trip can be done without refuelling as I fully fueled I have 1,500litres but no harm in taking advantage of a bit cheap diesel. At around 01.30 I mange to squeeze in to the MSA at Thieu about 2hours 30 from Calais having a frozen load I’m not to concerned about immigrants.
Wednesday morning up after a 9 hour break and put on Angles Morts stickers you need 6 stickers 3 on the trailer and 3 on the unit we have stickers on the trailers but use magnetic ones on the unit, Apparently it is 135euro fine for each missing sticker have heard different things about what roads you need them on, perhaps Pierrot or Owen Money can clear that up, but it’s no hassle to put them on and one less thing for the Gendasrmes to pull you for.
Finally arrive in Calais to find the queue starting a mile from the port entrance and takes over 2 hours to get to the French passport control turns out the cause was the scanners for the curtain siders were not working and so they were using search dogs instead which was much slower.
This is the new customs area set up on the old hoverport for anyone who hasn’t benn through Calais in the last two years you would barely recognise it now.
This the secure waiting area when the port is busy it doesn’t take a lot to slow everything down so the scanners not working have caused long delays
All hardsided trailers go into one of four sheds where heartbeat detectors are attached to the trailer to detect for immigrants Ithink it is debatable as to how effective they are it is not uncommon to see immigrants being pulled out of trailers in the port when the dogs do a final check.
Once booked on it is through a UK Border Force passport check plus now you need to have filled out the Covid loacator form giving details of your journey into the UK, today as a bonus the French Ministry are doing a Controle in the customs area they seem pleased to see an Irish lorry and I am pulled over. The inspector seems ok and quite chatty as he downloads the head he then asks for my passport, licence,CPC card, CMR for the load, CMR for the load to Switzerland, vehicle authorisation, vehicle insurance, the vehicle log book and lastly my digi card. After a nervous 30 minutes he returns grinning, not good I think but he says there are no problems and gives my paperwork back plus a form saying I have been checked.
The boss is relieved and can put his Visa card back in his wallet
A pretty uneventful crossing and it’s up to Watford gap for the night, next morning a leisurely drive to Holyhead for the 14.10 Irish Ferries to Dublin the boat is running an hour late due to bad weather the previous night but makes up a bit of time and arrives in Dublin only 40 minutes late.
The procedure since Brexit when coming into Dublin is that you check your customs status when you are about 20 minutes from docking using the Irish Customs website you enter your Pre Boarding Number (PBN) and they will tell you whether you can exit the port or if you need to call into customs for any checks, these can vary from a seal check to pallets being taken off and checked. Most loads get to exit the port with no checks meat or agricultural products will always result in a check and the other main one is problems with the VAT paperwork. At the start there were some horrendous delays but now it runs pretty smoothly unlike some other countries in the main the customs officers are helpful and want to get you out of the port. I get the green light to exit the port and park up for the night at the Topez truck stop in the port parking here is now free so you need to be in earlyish not the quietist of places at night but you will have no bother with load security here unlike some of the MSA’s around Dublin.
Leave the Topez at 06.30 and head to Swords to tip at Moloy and Sherry Coldstore we are regulars in here they start at 8 and I’m tipped by 9 from here it is 100km to the yard
And that is it for the week 3,097km from Belfast to here I have been out for 10 days prior to going to Switzerland I took a load of beef into the UK, 10 days away is about the norm for us although if you want to stay out longer that is not a problem. I will be back out Monday with a load of beef for the UK normally it would be Tuesday but we are flat out at the moment and will be up until Christmas when as like elsewhere it will quieten down.
Hope this has been given an insight into what was a fairly straight forward continental run generally we are left alone to get on with the job and any suggestions are listened to it is not uncommon to do a run like this and not speak to the boss from start to finish apart from texts for load details and ferry bookings. It is not everyones cup of tea and there is alot of uncertainty about home times especially in the winter when the weather can play havoc with the ferry crossings, also a certain amount of self reliance is needed for minor problems or tyre changes a tyre callout in france on the motorway is around a 1,000euros, but it is very rare that another driver will not come to your assistance despite any langauge barrier
