Hi – I’m a journalist at Bloomberg. I’m working on a story about the concerns and problems of French truck drivers ahead of the presidential election. Planning to do the story by just talking to as many drivers as I can there, and persuading one or more to take me along with them on the road. I was hoping some of you who drive to or through France might be able to offer a little advice on two things:
First, where would I find the service stops where I am most likely to find multiple French truck drivers stopping to eat or sleep, so they have time to talk, and are there days of the week that are better for that? This would be on on a trip from Calais to Lyon, and on to Marseilles or Perpignan. I’ll also detour to Clermont-Ferrand, to meet an ex-French para whose a drivers’ union leader there.
Secondly, with regard to driving in the cab, I know there are insurance issues, so any advice on how to improve my chances that drivers would say yes?
The kinds of questions I’m interested in asking them, just to be transparent about what I’m up to, are what they call “cabotage” – the right of (mostly Eastern European) drivers to work in France, competing for business and jobs from a lower cost base. Also, is being in the EU a net plus or minus for them as drivers? Issues with harrassment by immigrants trying to stow away into the UK, mostly around Calais (but that’s mostly solved now?) Are they worried for the future by driverless technologies? Why do French radio stations still play Boney M and Chic so often? 
And who eats Andouillette? Things like that.
My name, btw, is Marc Champion. If you have any other ideas about whom to talk to or what to do to get at a story about how French truck drivers feel about the election choice between Marine Le Pen (for Frexit, against immigration), and Macron (pro-EU, pro-market), please don’t hold back. Grateful for any and all advice. In particular, thank you to DieselDave for kindly agreeing to let me post this on your forum. I’ll post a link to the story on here when it is published.
All the best, Marc
This post is OK’ed by dd.
Hi Marc, just to start you off in the right direction for your first point. Don’t bother with motorway services as the majority of French drivers rarely use them, except maybe to use the toilets or get a coffee from the automatic coin ops. The majority of these services will be, at meal times or during the night full of non-French trucks and I don’t just mean EE.
It’s best to search for the French drivers around lunch time and in the evenings in the Routier restaurants on the National/Departmental roads. Even those using the motorways will come off to go to one of their favorite eating places. Bear in mind that the drivers eating their lunch might not have time to actually give you any of their time, so I would suggest leaving it till the evening.
( there’s an app called “TRUCKFLY” that will help you find these routiers )
I’m sure that you will have suitable ID with you and maybe a letter in French to explain what you are doing, because if you suddenly came up to me half way through my lunch, wanting to know my political thoughts, without some sort of introduction, I might be inclined to tell you where to go.
Hope that your French is pretty well up to scratch, it would be appreciated by the drivers.
On your second point, that’ll be up to the driver or the company that he works for. Where I have worked here, the rules normally state “no persons out of the company are permitted in the vehicle”, they have allowed my son to travel with me though.
Hope this helps.
That is very helpful advice Pierrot, thank you! My French is good enough to interview people, so that should be fine, and yes I’ll have ID. I’ve seen maps of the Routiers, like on Truckfly I guess. Do you know of any guide to favorites – not exactly a Michelin guide, but some place where French truckers might go to find out which Routiers are popular with other drivers?
Many thanks.
Marc
Journal1:
That is very helpful advice Pierrot, thank you! My French is good enough to interview people, so that should be fine, and yes I’ll have ID. I’ve seen maps of the Routiers, like on Truckfly I guess. Do you know of any guide to favorites – not exactly a Michelin guide, but some place where French truckers might go to find out which Routiers are popular with other drivers?
Many thanks.
Marc
Normally, for regular routes, older drivers will return to places they know and like, new drivers will ask colleagues and/or other drivers or just take pot luck. Those that do irregular routes? I myself use that app, or just start looking for somewhere to park up and eat when the time approaches. During July and August a lot of restaurants shut down for 3 to 4 weeks and you will find details of these closures on Truckfly, either posted by the owner or other drivers, that’s how good I think it is. There is a star rating on most routiers too.
My way of thinking has always been, if the parking area is full around meal times, then it has to be a place to stop at.
That makes sense, thanks again.
Hi Journal1, Totally agre with Pierrott14, a Routiers in the evening is by far the best place to go to meet you average French Driver. (that really doesn’t sound right after reading a thread on here that’s just been locked 
)
With the subjects you’ve outlined I hope you’re ready for some robust discussion, especially if you get on a table with a load of them. From spending a bit of time having a chat in Routiers before I don’t think they’ll be slow coming forward.
I use this website to find Routiers it might be of help to you. I’d look for one fo the bigger one to get more drivers to talk to.
http://www.relais-routiers.com/
Who does eat Andouillette, tried it once, never again. 
always fancied trying Steak Tartare though, but don’t want to order a plate full.
Great advice from Pierrot. As for passengers I would suggest approaching companies yourself, many will be fine and if you’re in the cab with their blessing insurance and the like would be fine. Also I imagine some companies may be glad of the exposure, could be good publicity for them. Good luck in your endeavor, I’d be interested to see the result if you could return and post a link one story is out.
Also are you going out to France via truck or flying? A British drivers opinions on these topics would be interesting and plenty of us still go over the water
All the above comments from Switchlogic and particularly from Pierrot make sense.
A couple of other thoughts for you. If you spend some time on the ferries youll find drivers from all nationalities with time on their hands wholl readily talk to you. Theyll be more relaxed than on the boat than queuing to join it, but the drivers youll meet there will be, by definition International drivers and not necessarily typical. Overnight parking at Relais Routiers will again populated by longer distance drivers. You may find a different attitude from more domestically employed drivers? If you do get to the Marseille area try to get the container terminal at Port St Louis, restaurants and snack bars there may provide a more local clientele.
Good luck with your project, and enjoy all those meals you`ve got in front of you.
Muckles, Switchlogic, Franglais, thank you! This is all great advice. If anyone is going over to France early next week and is willing to take a passenger, please let me know. Going over on the ferry sounds like a great idea.
Similarly, if you have any thoughts on companies to approach. I tried a big one, what used to be Norbert Dentresangles, now XPO, but no dice yet.
All the best
Marc
Maybe try some of the middle sized ones. Transports Viverais, STEF, STL, Blanquart, Mendy. I’m sure others can name many more than me
switchlogic:
Maybe try some of the middle sized ones. Transports Viverais, STEF, STL, Blanquart, Mendy. I’m sure others can name many more than me
STEF !! Middle sized !!!
Come on Luke, behave, they’re the largest fridge operator in France and really high on the Euro league too.
How about Laurent Pellier? With Blue River (Ro reg) units under some of his trailers I daresay there would some interesting conversations to be had there? Maybe not with Head Office, but with their drivers? And given the topic of your proposed research and article, XPO not playing ball is no great shock, as they are already deep into EE registeted vehicles.
The smaller companies may be a bit more vocal about any problems?
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Thank you Franglais. I’ll give them a try.
I’d call under 2,000 vehicles middle sized to be honest en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/STEF
switchlogic:
pierrot 14:
switchlogic:
Maybe try some of the middle sized ones. Transports Viverais, STEF, STL, Blanquart, Mendy. I’m sure others can name many more than me
STEF !! Middle sized !!!
Come on Luke, behave, they’re the largest fridge operator in France and really high on the Euro league too.
Smaller than XPO though…
Not correct. On a European scale STEF is the largest. XPO and K+N are major players but still fall short of STEF’s total activity.
Bonsoir Craig, how are you? Not seen you on here for a while
Craig 111:
switchlogic:
pierrot 14:
switchlogic:
Maybe try some of the middle sized ones. Transports Viverais, STEF, STL, Blanquart, Mendy. I’m sure others can name many more than me
STEF !! Middle sized !!!
Come on Luke, behave, they’re the largest fridge operator in France and really high on the Euro league too.
Smaller than XPO though…
Not correct. On a European scale STEF is the largest. XPO and K+N are major players but still fall short of STEF’s total activity.
XPO has the biggest owned fleet in Europe. Less than 2,000 trucks doesn’t really make them the biggest anything. Large and impressive company certainly but with revenues at less than half that of XPO Europe it’s not the biggest. I think you may need to back that statevent up with figure if you want to convince me otherwise