Waiting in Calais and incomprehension in England

Calais seems to be returning to normal. On Tuesday, angry MyFerryLink employees blocked the roads and track of the Eurotunnel with burning tyres. The long traffic jams caused delayed deliveries and scary moments for the drivers, who helplessly watched as their trucks were stormed by groups of refugees. "You should only go and watch if you're tired of life," Bertjan Fieret of transport company Jac. Op 't Hof told a Dutch news station. The four locks on his truck were forced open, and he expected the refugees to be taken out again during inspection. "It would be better if there was more police. Perhaps they should even bring in the army." Bertjan told Dutch news channel NOS that no refugees were found in his trailer. Things weren't over just yet though: "I thought I was safe, but at the terminal where everyone checks in, there suddenly was a group of ten to twenty migrants. They ran through the 'check-in', but soon returned. It didn't seem to stop."

Waiting
On Tuesday, ABC Logistics had only one driver en route to the Eurotunnel in Calais. Marcel van Bruggen: "On Monday night, he arrived at the Eurotunnel at 11.00 pm, and on Tuesday he arrived at 5.00 am in Great Britain. We had anticipated the problems, and have adjusted our planning by looking into the option of transport by ferry at Hook of Holland and Dunkirk, but there were delays there as well." Units of the French army and police eventually removed the burning blockades used by strikers of subsidiary company MyFerryLink to block the roads to the Eurotunnel. Marcel: "The tunnel operator kept us up to date constantly, and the driver was stuck in traffic for around two hours ultimately. Fortunately nothing nasty happened there."

Frank Nispeling - Sales Executive at HSF Logistics Barendrecht - says the situation in Calais is still worrying: "Since the start of this year, we've been inconvenienced by the migrant situation, but due to additional circumstances like weather conditions and in this case the MyFerryLink strike, an untenable situation arises. This causes long traffic jams before the tunnel, with the average waiting time currently being 5 hours, and only one thing has to happen to make the chaos complete again. All our material has crossed now." Yesterday was far from calm. Shipping by boat was attempted, but in part due to long waiting times for boats and transfers, this didn't lead to the desired effect. Frank responds coolly to the question whether there is more inconvenience from migrants: "That inconvenience is structural, and was no worse than normal yesterday. Train traffic had to be halted though, due to the blockade put up by the MyFerryLink employees, upon which migrants took the opportunity to make use of the chaos that arose." 

HSF is surprised though about the reactions from some clients and recipients: "They're responding very agitatedly and full of incomprehension to the delayed deliveries, appearing completely unaware of the situation. We try to keep them updated on the developments as much as possible, we can't do anything more. Just as the Eurotunnel operator can't do anything more than inform us as well as possible. Seeing how the products have to reach England somehow or other, we're all in the same boat. It's a vicious cycle. The English government is not doing enough to deal with this problem."