I copied this to my phone over a year ago from an Email I received, in readiness for a head butting session with Diageo personnel over a sign put up on a toilet facility entrance denying entry to Drivers on one of their sights.
Drivers facilities rights regs
Gaining access to toilet facilities can pose a daily challenge for HGV drivers, both on the road and when delivering to depots around the country.
After a long-running campaign, spearheaded by Gillian Kemp at Truckers Toilets (UK) and the Unite union, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) announced last November that it was clarifying the regulations to make clear that duty-holders must provide facilities for visiting drivers.
At the same time it launched a campaign to raise employer awareness of this duty.
Yet HGV drivers are still reporting difficulties in gaining access to toilet facilities on certain sites. As CM’s own coverage has shown, the problem remains widespread, with offenders ranging from blue-chip high street retail giants, international IT companies and major logistics businesses through to family-owned haulage firms.
Driver complaints
Driver complaints include being refused access to any lavatory facilities, being told toilets are out of order or out of bounds to drivers, and being told to use toilets at nearby petrol stations, or even at local pubs.
Other drivers report access being granted begrudgingly, being made to sign for a key to the facilities or being met, once in the toilet facilities, with demeaning notices directed specifically at drivers, which lecture them on how to keep the facilities clean.
Clearly some duty-holders are just not getting the message. So what can drivers do, if they are denied access to toilet facilities?
One way drivers can fight back is to know their rights. The HSE told CM: “When a visiting delivery driver visits non-domestic premises as part of their work, the duty holder/employer at that workplace must –and not should, as it states in ACOP L124 – provide access to welfare facilities.”
An HSE spokesman added: “There is a legal requirement to provide visiting delivery drivers with access to toilets and washing facilities under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992.”
Drivers who are denied this right should complain to the HSE, the spokesman said, adding that it “has a legal right to make enquiries about all allegations or complaints made to it” .
Unite is another source of support for drivers. Its campaign has organised pickets such as one at the Port of Liverpool last year, to protest about the lack of driver toilet facilities at the Seaforth container terminal.
Unite’s national officer Adrian Jones urges drivers to report any incidents to the union. “If employers continue to refuse our members access to toilets we will pursue them through all avenues open to us, and that will include naming and shaming companies that deny drivers the right to spend a penny,” he warns.
Michelle Barkley, the architectural representative on the DfT’s working group addressing this issue, advises truck drivers to carry a copy of the HSE clarification.
Lack of awareness
“There really is a low level of awareness among businesses,” she says, “so if a driver can show that announcement, their complaint will carry much more weight”.
She also recommends that drivers complaining to the HSE about being denied access to toilets should refer to the HSE’s recent clarification, since “not everyone at the HSE is necessarily aware of the regulations on this”.
Failure to provide toilet facilities for visiting drivers can create health hazards. Drivers who cannot access toilets are often forced to use the roadside or lay-bys, creating a health hazard for other travellers – not to mention the health hazard posed to consumers, if the drivers are delivering food and drinks.
Drivers denied access to toilet facilities are also in danger of developing a myriad of health problems including stomach pains, cramps, poor concentration, urinary tract infections, stretching of the bladder wall, kidney stones, chronic constipation and, in extreme cases, life-threatening conditions, such as impacted bowels.
