Hauliers call for driver protection at Calais

UK operators have revealed that drivers are being threatened by illegal immigrants at Calais and are calling on the French and UK authorities to take action. However the Home Office says the authorities are doing all they can. John MacConnachie, transport manager at Wisbech, Cambs-based Robinson's Transport, believes the problem with illegal immigrants is getting much worse. "Gangs of immigrants throw stones and abuse the drivers," he says.

MacConnachie says his drivers are now scared to buy diesel near Calais because they are threatened by gangs, sometimes of up to 20 people. Neville Brooker, operations director at Heritage International Transport, says he warns drivers that it is dangerous at Calais and the company has a rule that trucks should only stop in secure parking sites within a three-mile radius of the port. "If we have to slow down on the way into the port then they hang on the underneath of the truck."

Derek Linch, owner of Derek Linch Haulage, adds that his drivers have also had problems with illegal immigrants and as a result of that and poor rates he is no longer sending many trucks abroad. A Home Office spokesman says: "French ministers have agreed to increase security at the border, not step backwards."

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The Freight Transport Association has spoken out against the French authorities at Calais, which have banned the use of electronic scanning equipment designed to detect illegal immigrants in trucks heading for the UK. Director of external affairs Geoff Dossetter says: "Illegal immigrants seeking to reach the UK from Calais and elsewhere in northern France continue to be a major problem for British and other drivers crossing the Channel. "Those drivers look for the UK and French governments to provide security for lorry drivers and their vehicles in order to prevent the carriage of illegal immigrants into the UK."