By Til Biermann
Berlin, Berlin: Cars, pedestrians and cyclists jostle on the streets here. It is particularly difficult for truck drivers to fight their way through the urban jungle.
Cem Foltin (33) has been a truck driver for three years. He quickly realized that life as a trucker in Berlin is not easy. He drives off from the company premises in Neukölln in his 16-ton truck and collects tree trunks and branches for the Schuhmann tree team.
6.30 a.m: Cem, red hair, red beard, blue eyes, accurate cut, Turkish father, German mother, checks tire pressure and oil like every morning. His driver card, connected to an on-board computer, registers everything. If he does not do the controls for at least ten minutes, there may be penalties.
“The BAG, the Federal Office for Goods Transport, can now read the driver cards by radio, they don’t even have to stop you,” he says.
6.45 a.m.: Cem enters the first destination that his dispatcher sent to his cell phone. He has an extra truck navigation system on board for 1,000 euros, which only allows roads that are also approved for high tonnage. The walk to Georg-Benjamin-Strasse in Karow should take 40 minutes.
Cem communicates with his dispatcher via app Photo: Ralf Gunther
Cem has two daughters (6 and 3 years old), his girlfriend is a housewife. The whole family lives on the 1650 euros net that he earns. He used to earn 2,000 euros net in a pacemaker company, but the mood was bad.
“My boss used to do the work himself, so he’s relaxed. I put the working environment before money, because then you work in a good mood,” he says.
When he drives through Berlin, he usually has no parking space to take his legally required break. “My old boss said: Stay in the second row is cheaper than the other penalty. Luckily, the public order office and the police are tolerant with us.”
The unloaded branches and trunks are chopped up in Waßmannsdorf Photo: Til Biermann
7.20 a.m.: On the navigation system, which also draws traffic data from the Internet, the arrival time is always corrected backwards. There are too many drivers who quickly cut in in front of Cem, he then misses many traffic lights. “Another driver once said that drivers are like microbes, not brains,” he says.
He’s particularly worried about cyclists who he can’t see in the blind spot, because an entire school class could be hiding there, he says. He drives twice as carefully, looks twice more.
Construction sites, narrow streets, traffic jams: that’s Foltin’s everyday life Photo: Ralf Gunther
7.55 a.m.: Finally two heaps of branches and leaves lying on the side of the road are reached. The journey took about 30 minutes longer than the navigation system indicated.
With his crane, Cem maneuvers the approximately 500 kilos into the hold, for which he has several joysticks on a control panel in front of his stomach. “Anyone who has ever played Playstation, Fifa, can do it,” he says.
8:13 a.m.: The trucker ride continues. The next destination is the Büdnerring in Reinickendorf, where pieces of tree trunks are said to lie.
Cem talks about life as a truck driver: “Many come from Poland, they get 800 euros at home, 1800 euros here. They want to feed their families, but sometimes don’t see them for months.”
Its stressful months are from October to March. Then the birds’ breeding season is over and his colleagues from the tree trimmers are allowed to get at all the branches.
The truck is allowed to roll through the Tiergarten tunnel Photo: Ralf Gunther
8:55 am: Arrival in Reinickendorf. The tree trunks cannot be found. They’re gone. Cem says: “They were stolen, such firewood is in demand, always shortly before winter.” In his app he enters: “It wasn’t there anymore.”
In his spare time, Cem mostly avoids traffic on his motorcycle, a 1996 Kawasaki 900. “I have fewer traffic jams and less parking problems.”
9.45 a.m.: Cem collects some of the piles of branches in Tempelhof. His colleagues are trimming the trees along the road and separating dead wood. Now the loading area is full and it is time to unload at a commercial yard in Brandenburg on the border with Berlin.
The wages are not high, but the prices at the gas station are. But at least Foltin can park here Photo: Ralf Gunther
10:28 am: Arrival at the farm in Waßmannsdorf at BER airport. Here a huge machine shreds the branches and sticks into bark mulch. It was a great effort to collect the branches from all over Berlin.
11.30 a.m.: Back in Tempelhof. Painter Ralf (56) is busy working on one of the piles of wood. He pulled into the median with a trailer. The tree cutters allowed him to take some trunks with him.
A truck driver cannot see a cyclist in the blind spot. He’s still to blame if something happens. So he has to be doubly careful Photo: Ralf Gunther
“I cut it up at home with a chainsaw and dry it,” he says. “Some neighbors are already building chimneys because of Putin.”
12:22 p.m.: Return to the company yard in Neukölln. Cem will take the branches to the shredder tomorrow. He’ll work a little more, smoke a few Marlboro cigarettes with his colleagues. Then a new day begins in trucker life.