* Calais, France to Kent, UK - British long-haul trucker says migrants trying to climb aboard are 'no good, thieving scum'
-- For Vince Steptoe, every journey from mainland Europe to Britain starts with locks, security checks and then more locks. His favorite is the bulldog — a curved iron bar that he straps on the back doors of the vehicle, next to the padlock and the plastic tamperproof seal... When Steptoe started out as a long-haul trucker 30 years ago, the locks were there to keep people from stealing his cargo. Now, they serve a different purpose, he says. They're there to keep people from becoming part of the cargo... In recent months, British TV news has been filled with footage of crowds of young migrants prying open the back of trucks like Vince’s on the roads near the ports between Britain and France, and clambering inside... No one knows how many people have made it to the United Kingdom in this way, but thousands are believed to be trying every month... Around the French port of Calais, the closest point to southern England, there are several thousand people sleeping outdoors in makeshift camps, waiting for their chance to cross the border... I joined Steptoe for a day travelling along this route, starting in Belgium and ending at British passport control in Calais, where the Channel Tunnel connects the two countries... For Steptoe, making sure that the locks hold is about more that protecting his vehicle, however. It is also about protecting his country. “That [the bulldog lock] is there to stop them.” he explains. “I’m on border patrol. I’m the last defense.” How does he feel about that? “Unarmed.”... Truckers like Steptoe say they are ignored by both sides in the debate over migration. Under the current rules, they can be personally fined up to £2,000 ($3,132) for every stowaway found in their vehicles, regardless of whether they were at fault, or whether the truck was adequately secured... Britain’s immigration problem go back to history, Steptoe says. Traditionally, we have always been a nation of migrants, but something has gone wrong now... The British have gone soft. The welfare system rewards those who have never worked, at the expense of people who have paid in all their lives, he adds. That is what is drawing people to Calais. “I don't mind those that work. Fair enough. But the rest of them? We're full up!" he says, adding it may be time for a harsher solution. Perhaps the British government needs to make an example to deter people. "We need to get tough. If necessary, we should be shooting a few. That would put a stop to it."... We enter France, and begin to near the coast. As Steptoe talks, we pass one boarded-up truckers’ rest point after another. For miles around the coast, French police have closed truckers' service stations, because they're too vulnerable to migrants. Steptoe keeps a supply of water in the cabin instead. As we enter Calais, the traffic is moving fast, and there are only few of the sad young men sitting in small groups by the side of the road. No groups prying open vehicles. Most look exhausted, tired, even defeated. A scrubby wasteland marks the spot where the French police bulldozed a small encampment. New, taller fences are being constructed along the way. Finally, we pass through the last line of razor wire, and into British passport control. A sniffer dog does a circuit of the van, and British border control eyeballs us and our passports... Technically, we have migrated back to Britain. Steptoe's locks have held...
(Photo Credit: Leo Hornak - As a trucker, Vince Steptoe seems himself as the front line in Europe's migrant crisis)
Kent, ENG, UK - PRI The World, by Leo Hornak - August 19, 2015
* Florida / USA - In it for the long haul
-- When Greg Tiedeman started out in the dairy transport business 30 years ago he drove a single-axle truck with a 2,300-gallon tank... “Now I’ve got a six-axle truck with a 5,500-gallon tank on there,” he says with a hearty laugh, pointing to his mega milk-holding ride... It’s the second trip he has made out to a large-scale cow milking farm in rural Lake City on a steamy Wednesday summer afternoon — and he already has hauled 45,000 pounds of milk to the dairy to be processed after his morning route... The life a milk hauler is not for the weary. Working usually 12 hours a day, Tiedeman says he normally has one day off a week and works every weekend... But the demanding schedule never really came as a surprise for the longtime hauler... At 48 years old, Tiedeman lives on the farm and in the same house he was raised in just outside of Lake City.
His late father, Raleigh Tiedeman, owned and operated Tiedeman Milk Transfer for 45 years...
(Photo: Greg Tiedeman preps his truck to take a load of milk from a large-scale dairy farm in rural Lake City) -- Lake City, FLO, USA - Republican Eagle, by Stacy Bengs-Silverberg - Aug 20, 2015Labels: truckers' stories
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