The island's long-haul driver.

On one side of the road, rugged volcanic rocks loom high,  while on the other side, the waves of the Indian Ocean lap up against the shore. Gerald Victoire slows down his Actros. “There's guaranteed to be traffic around the corner”, he says. However, this time, vehicles are moving smoothly along the coastal road towards Saint-Denis. It's when Gerald reaches the capital of the island with his truck that he hits the expected traffic jam.

“Île de la Réunion" – Reunion Island – is a French overseas department located 2,000 kilometres off the east coast of Africa – and the name says it all:  the island was uninhabited until the 17th century, when it started to be populated by French settlers. Over the centuries, inhabitants from all continents and a huge diversity of ethnic groups have joined them. “We islanders are particularly proud of this diversity and, above all, the peaceful coexistence of the island's inhabitants”, says Gerald Victoire.

However, there is one reunion that everyone would happily do without:  in the densely populated northwest of the island, congested roads and traffic jams have become a regular scene. The coastal road between the cities of Saint-Denis and Saint-Paul is a bottleneck:  a total of 250,000 of the island's 860,000 inhabitants live here. Lying between the two cities is Le Port, the country's main port: all goods that arrive here need to be distributed around the island. And that's not always easy. “It sometimes takes more than two hours to drives the 30 kilometres between the two cities”, sighs Gerald Victoire.

He looks back and forth between the MirrorCam displays. Then the 46-year-old looks up at the steep rock face while Active Drive Assist helps the Actros 1863 cruise slowly but safely through the traffic jam. “Rock falls can happen at any time”, says Gerald Victoire, who has been a truck driver for 26 years.

Huge steel structures with thick nets reduce the risk of rock falls but there have still been several serious accidents caused by rocks on this route. “We also have an active volcano, the Piton de la Fournaise, on the island.” And on top of all that,   during cyclone season, waves of up to ten metres in height crash onto the road... as can be seen in many videos on the internet. “Don't be deceived by the current calm conditions”, says Gerald Victoire. He has known the island and its fickle weather well from a young age. Between December and March, it rains so heavily here that Reunion holds the world record for the highest levels of precipitation within three days (3,929 mm). “During this time, the rainfall tumbles down off the rocks in real torrents”, reports the trucker. And from the other side of the road come the waves. The result: frequent closures of this section of the route – and of course traffic jams. This means that the main supply route for heavy-duty transport is closed, and there's no alternative road through the highlands.

“That’s why we're pinning all our hopes on this bridge”, says Gerald, pointing through the windscreen towards the sea. Ahead, a massive construction site looms parallel to the Littoral route. This is the most expensive motorway project in French history.

But until the route is completed and vehicles are allowed to drive across it, Gerald’s boss Jimmy Soucramanien has to find other ways to avoid the traffic jams. And so, he has strategically distributed his fleet of 35 vehicles across the entire island so that not every truck has to pass through the bottleneck at Saint-Denis too often. Whether they be delivering post, food and beverages, building materials or recycling waste, Gerald and his colleagues at JS Transports are on the road all over the island.