Truck drivers hit the rails and take a break

The railway workers in their orange overalls have an unenviable job. In the summer heat sweat is streaming down their grubby faces under protection helmets. The open area of the loading yard on the outskirts of Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, offers little shade from the noonday sun, and lots of muscle is needed for the assembly of the mobile ramps on the last railway carriage.
On the tarmac next to the tracks 20 trucks are parked and ready. Most of the drivers have left their cabins. They have to walk over to the train booth to go through the transport formalities.
Many vehicles have east European number plates. But the registration is not a reliable guide as to where the goods and drivers come from.
Christian, who drives his truck first onto the weighing scales, is from Romania. Today he is transporting metal from Germany to Italy for an Austrian firm. The rolling highway takes 44 tonnes per truck, four more than is allowed on Swiss roads.

Yellow and red cards
“Forty-four-tonners are soon going to be more the rule than the exception,“ says Wolfgang Ziebold, responsible for the vehicle dimensions. The higher weight limits on the railway are a decisive advantage for some transporters.
In his right breast pocket Ziebold has a yellow card, in the left a red card. “Any driver in the world can understand this language.” He shows the yellow card when “for example, the antenna is still attached or the driver has to adjust the load”.
Mostly the driver can fix up the truck according to the regulations there and then. But it happens on one train in three that a driver gets a red card because the load is not secured, the tarpaulin is broken or the vehicle is too high.
The railway company doesn’t concern itself with fact that loads with these defects should not be allowed on the road either, because the same rules apply there. The offending drivers are not reported to the police.
“The drivers are responsible for their own trucks,” says Martin Weideli, head of production at RAlpin, the operating company of Rola (Rolling Highway) Switzerland.
Driving onto the loading ramps requires precision. There is only a few millimetres of space on each side of the trucks’ wheels. Despite the narrow margin, most lorries roll on easily in one go.
The drivers have to spend the nine-hour train journey in an accompanying carriage. Because the drivers have to take a break of exactly nine hours, as set down in the night and rest regulations, they are only permitted to return to their trucks in Novara, Italy. “That’s one of our best selling points,” Weideli adds.

Stiff competition, low wages
“You shouldn’t do your report in Freiburg but in Novara,“ a German driver comments. “The drivers’ toilets there are not fit for humans.” There has been no hot water in the showers for four weeks, “broken flushing tanks and shower, the toilets covered in sh***.”
Weideli has to step in and appease the drivers.
“We know about the problem.” Although a partner firm is responsible, RAlpin has pledged to sort out the facilities. “It will be sorted by the end of August,” Weideli promises.
The reason the German driver, who introduces himself as Hans-Peter Behrendt, still uses the Rola almost weekly is because it allows him to skip a night.
“When I come, like today, from the Ruhr region, I have to take a break somewhere in Switzerland, either in Erstfeld or past the Gotthard. I can’t get further than that in ten hours.”