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Fresh breezes carry the scent of spring meadows across empty highways as thousands of truckers keep the nation stocked with food and medical supplies.
Long-distance driver travel has been cut by as much as three hours and has received poignant expressions of appreciation from people applauding them from highway bridges.
But there are also hardships for those who are not in the essential goods business, and some surprising disappointments including closing toilets and exceptional reckless driving to contend with. A car driver was recorded at 134 mph in a 40 mph zone in London, while Gloucestershire police registered a driver at 122 mph on the M5.
But the blockade also brings out the best in people, says Bill Dommett, 62, a C&D South West driver, based in Chard, Somerset, on a trip with the Guardian on board.
“You see children, adults, older people waving and applauding and they have small signs. You give him a hoot or a smile and you can see that they are so happy. I don’t see myself as special, I’m just a truck driver, so seeing people appreciates what you’re doing, even though they’ve never appreciated you like that before is really nice. It’s touching and it makes you cry a little bit, “says Dommett.
He recounts another incident last week when he bought 15 bars of a new variety of Galaxy chocolate for his daughter from the prison officer, who says he kept it running after he brought a bar home for her one night.
“The cashier came up and picked up another five bars and handed them to me, saying, ‘That’s from one key worker to another, stay safe and well and I hope to see you next week,’ said Dommett.” It really made me stop. What a gesture!
Mark Bagley, 45, is a night driver who drives a 60-foot double-decker truck for the same company. Your usual route is the 340-mile return trip from Chard to a Palletforce distribution center in Burton upon Trent, where you can drop off or pick up vital supplies ranging from bread, flour and fruit to industrial supplies.
Each journey lasts approximately three and a half hours, depending on accidents, bottlenecks and congestion.
Covid-19 has emptied the roads, reminding Bagley of the great open field of the USA. USA, where the only other vehicles are tractors and combines moving slowly through crops.
“Before the coronavirus, you saw about 300 vehicles an hour. Now it’s a completely different world. I’ve driven a lot in the United States and it’s a very similar field. I thought you would never see that in this country, but when the coronavirus came it was like if I was driving in Wisconsin again, “says Bagley.
Not only business travel and family car travel are gone, but so are trucks carrying nonessential goods.
“It was very creepy,” says Dommett. “If you go to a service station now, there are two or three cars in the parking lot, there are no caravans, no coaches.”
But there are also advantages, he says. “It’s so nice to be able to get in his truck and set the cruising speed from 53 to 56 mph and just stay there without having cars up front at 50 mph forcing him to use the speeds.”
As everywhere, there are those who ignore the blocking rules, and Bagley says he has been surprised once or twice.
“The other day I had two Harley-Davidson motorcyclists on either side of me, that’s the center lane at 80 mph and his friend doing the same thing inside me on the shoulder. This is in broad daylight. There was a car in front me and a truck in front of the car and next to it, the bike inside turns between the car and the truck. I thought: I hope he falls off his bike and breaks his neck. It made me really mad.
“You have a five-year-old girl dying from Covid and you have these 34/35 year old men playing with people’s lives on the highway. It was depressing to see him, especially since he has the electronic matrices of every portico and bridge that he says” Stay home, essential trip only, save lives. “It is constant, there are no excuses. Anyway, you do not drive on the shoulder, even at 80 mph,” says Bagley.
Lorna Hammond, managing director of the transportation company, says the business has dropped 30-40%, forcing it to suspend a corresponding portion of drivers and park a third of the fleet.
As expected, he has seen larger volumes in collections and supermarket deliveries, including the Morrisons Regional Distribution Center in Bridgwater, Somerset, as well as patio furniture and patio tiles. But there have also been a few surprises, including an increase in orders for hot tubs and pools.
Small breweries have suspended deliveries, while the business for a customer supplying wood stoves has plummeted, as the installation of the ovens would involve workers entering a home to do nonessential work, which is discouraged. .
We’re on the road all the time keeping supplies moving, where are you supposed to wash your hands?
Dommett having lunch on the way.
C&D South West also toured central London twice a week with stocks of the hotel’s minibar, including water bottles, snack packs and chocolate. The provider is still listed, but the hotel business evaporated overnight.
The decline in habit has also affected drivers. Food is no longer available at service stations, which also have closed toilets and showers.
“I think it’s gross,” says Dommett. “We’re on the road all the time keeping supplies moving, where are you supposed to wash your hands?” He said, underlining the risk generated by the spread of the virus between different places.
One day Dommett could be in Wolverhampton, another in Middlesbrough or closer to home, picking up or leaving food for the farm. He remembers the FMD outbreak, when everything and everyone who entered a farm was disinfected, and cannot believe the arrogant attitude of some when it comes to hygiene and coronavirus.
He thinks some deposits might have used Covid-19 as an excuse for close the toilets that they didn’t want to provide to drivers in the first place.
A spokesperson for the Road Haulage Association (RHA) said: “It is against health and safety, since essentially a truck driver is on the job and must have access to the toilets where they collect or deposit loads. At first we had a lot of complaints and still got one or two a day. We got to the Transportation Department and we also called the various warehouses. ”
Hammond says he tries to maintain morale, giving drivers laminated rainbow drawings for his windshields and baking a seven-layer cake for his workers.
While his business is doing well and could be large enough to survive, he fears for small family businesses.
The RHA reports that across the industry 46% of trucks are idle and 25% of drivers have been suspended.
Paul Mummery, a RHA spokesman, says: “There are a lot of truckers out there who just want to go back to work, even if they are suspended and that might seem to be fine.” There is anxiety that trade volumes will not come back and this is a precarious industry anyway. ”
