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Thousands of trucks and vans have been stranded in the south of England. Drivers can only continue their way to France with a negative Corona test. Many are threatened with Christmas in a traffic jam.
By Imke Koehler, ARD-Studio London
There should be several Covid testing stations for truck drivers, one of them at the old Manston airfield, where trucks have had to park in recent days. Even now that France has reopened the border at Calais, those stranded on the other side of the English Channel will have to be patient. The backwater cannot be resolved immediately.
While the government speaks of 4,000 trucks trapped in and around Dover, the Trucking Association (RHA), the trade association for trucking, speaks of 8,000 to 10,000 vehicles, which could include pickup trucks.
Hard chase after the test
First of all, the question now is how fast truckers and couriers can get proof. This German DHL courier has so far failed in the attempt. It was just sent from one place to another. “I’m hoping to get tested. People at the Covid testing center in Manston told me I had to go to Margate and they told me I had to go back to Manston,” he says. “I do not really know what to do”.
The man had brought a delivery to Liverpool and then never returned to the mainland. He would like to be home for Christmas, but the situation is catastrophic, he says.
Insulation in the cabin
Basically, for those who have done a quick test for Covid, a result should be available after 30 minutes, which the truck driver receives on the mobile phone. If the result is negative, they could head towards Calais; otherwise they would have to stay on the island, explains Robert Jenrick, UK Minister for Housing and Local Government.
“If they test positive, they will be offered a lab test and then they will probably isolate themselves in their booth until they get the result,” says Jenrick. If the test came back positive, they would have to quarantine at a nearby hotel. “During the night we got the first hotel that should offer enough capacity at least for the next few days.”
Just a sample from January?
Jenrick does not want the UK to see even more such scenes when the Brexit transition phase comes to an end in eight days. There is no reason for something like this to happen in the future, the minister said. It is in the interest of all parties to keep the borders open.
Instead, Jenrick noted that the current case shows Britain’s good preparation: “The fact that we have been able to react very quickly to a very unusual situation suggests that preparations for the end of the transition period were correct and largely effective part “.
Duncan Buchanan of the RHA comes to a completely different opinion. Looking ahead to the turn of the year, he said this was the beginning of a very, very serious disruption to the supply chain, in a way that the British had probably never seen before.
