While France, like other European countries, has suspended travel to the United Kingdom, affected by a new strain of Covid-19, road carriers, stranded in Calais or on the other side of the Channel, are worried.

They denounce a "lack of preparation" and a "lack of respect" vis-à-vis the drivers.

REPORTAGE

The United Kingdom is totally isolated as a new strain of Covid-19 has been detected in the country now cut off from the world for at least two days.

Europeans have suspended travel, and freight is also affected.

On the other side of the channel, in Calais, road transporters, stranded, are worried.

>> LIVE

- Coronavirus: follow the evolution of the situation Monday, December 21

"Unpreparedness and lack of respect"

For them, it is a real nightmare.

In Calais, the truck drivers no longer know what to do.

For lack of guarantees for the return, most of them decided to cancel their departure for England.

This is particularly the case of Bruno Ringot, transporter in Boulogne-sur-Mer, whose trucks make three or four trips per day across the Channel.

The latter canceled everything, but one of his drivers, Florent, left on Friday and is currently stranded in Dover.

"There are signs on the motorway indicating that the trucks are stored", explains Florent, reached by telephone.

"They announced 48 hours, but without certainty, we do not have more information than that, so we wait."

The situation exasperates his boss.

"It is the lack of preparation and the lack of respect for our drivers that are starting to be very painful," Bruno Ringot laments.

"It is unacceptable what we subject to road transport!".

>> Find Your big evening newspaper in replay and podcast here

"We don't have a clear and concrete answer"

An uncertainty that extends to the conditions of return to French territory, which the drivers will, it seems, be able to regain after having undergone a screening test in Great Britain.

"What does it cost? What are the delays to obtain the results? What if a test is positive? And in the event of a possible hospitalization?", Asks Sébastien Riveira, regional delegate of the National Federation of Transport road (FNTR).

“What is annoying is that there are too many uncertainties and we do not have a clear and concrete answer on the terms of repatriation of drivers who are in Great Britain,” he denounces.

Added to this are the economic consequences of such a closure for carriers.

With these canceled deliveries, thousands of euros were lost for each company.