Driver dedication: haulier Joachim Fehrenkötter knows what it’s like to be behind the wheel

On his last tour, Joachim Fehrenkötter was ready to make the decision to create a new position. For several days at a time, the 52-year-old haulier had once again stepped into the shoes of a truck driver. He and his Actros took two large cutting units to South Tyrol for the maize harvest. He brought camper vans from Italy to Bavaria, then took a load of caravans back home to the Münsterland region.

“As a truck driver, you’re often on your own when it comes to customers,” Fehrenkötter reports. “An order comes in via email, and then they expect everything to be handled perfectly, in spite of missing information that you have to dig for once you’re at the customer’s premises.”

Interface between driver, dispatch and fleet management.

An unsatisfactory situation that leads to a loss of both time and money – Fehrenkötter didn’t want to just make peace with that. After his return, he immediately tasked an employee with making sure that the drivers are provided with useful information. For example, what needs to be done at the loading location, how the driver is to behave there and what they need to bring with them.

“We have so many loading and unloading locations,” explains Fehrenkötter, whose 150-truck haulage firm transports agriculture technology, light commercial vehicles, construction machinery and passenger cars. “Dispatch and fleet management would be overwhelmed by having to provide drivers with relevant information for all of these locations. Now we have one employee who focuses on just this task.” And, because many of Fehrenkötter’s drivers are from Poland, the boss filled the position with an employee who is 100 per cent bilingual.

– Joachim Fehrenkötter

At Fehrenkötter, you can still find romanticism of long-haul drivers.

“I enjoy driving a truck, and when we handle tramp shipments, you occasionally get that romantic long-haul feeling – when you wake up in the morning in a strange place and the sun rises over the hills. But I also drive myself from time to time so that I don’t lose sight of what the drivers go through every day and to implement improvements. On the one hand, that way no one can tell me that this or that isn’t possible. On the other hand, I am well aware that the conditions out there are often quite difficult.”

The biggest challenge is and will always be time pressure: “Not sitting in a traffic jam, getting to all the loading locations, and all that while observing the rules for driving and rest periods – it’s quite an undertaking. The pressure is immense on everyone involved. Whether I see the traffic as just a little red line on a map or if I’m sitting in it and have to just watch the window of my loading time tick away – those are completely different stories. I recommend that all business owners and dispatchers get behind the wheel themselves sometimes!”

Hardly any parking spaces, no showers or toilets.

The second significant problem that drivers struggle with is the lack of parking spaces, showers and toilets. “I have had it happen to me that all lay-bys from Berlin to Hanover were full. You can get desperate. You have to take your break, and at some point you are just tired. Some end up just parking along a motorway exit – so irresponsible!”

Fehrenkötter is of the opinion that legislators could easily offer some help in this regard: “These days, you can build a warehouse with a hundred loading docks and don’t have to provide a single truck parking space. But if you open a hair salon, you have to provide evidence of five, six or seven parking spaces. Something isn’t right there! More responsibility could be taken for the shipping industry and transport sector in this regard.” Things run differently at the premises of his business in Ladbergen, near Münster, where even drivers from other companies can stop and take their breaks, shower and use the toilets at any time.

DocStop for medical care on the road.

Fehrenkötter has been advocating for improving working conditions for long-haul drivers for years. One example of his efforts is the DocStop project. Thanks to this initiative, truck drivers can easily pay a visit to a doctor while on the road throughout Germany and Austria. “DocStop is not intended for emergencies, but if a driver needs medication or needs to briefly speak with a doctor about something, then all of the doctors listed at www.docstop.eu are available to them.” At the moment, DocStop is working in cooperation with the Save association to also roll out the initiative in France.

“People need to realise that trucks and their drivers are there to ensure that our economy and our lives keep moving. Which is why I will continue to advocate for improving their working conditions in the years to come!” says the recipient of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Photos: Sebastian Vollmert
Video: Martin Schneider-Lau (with material from Norbert Böwing)