I have recently changed jobs and my new company does not pay for overnight parking at msa truckstops etc . My old company used to which i did not think much of at the time . It does not really bother me anyway because i think it is a waste of money and would prefer to cook in the cab and park on an ind est etc. I was talking to my new boss today about it and he made a good point . Overnight parking is minimum £20 these days and i average 3 nights out a week . That is £3000 alone just on parking and we have 20 trucks doing nights out so that is roughly £60,000 a year on something that does not need spending . I was just wandering does your boss pay for parking ■■? And woth how tight money is these days would this be a way to start saving money ■■
Guy i do occasionally work for doing overnights, we get to park in the yard of a few places we deliver to, other times usually got places i can park for free, usually with supermarket near by which suits me.
He expects us to use free parking but if it came down to it and we needed to park in a MSA or truckspot because running outta hours he would pay for it. He would get really ****** off if i was parking in MSA every night, then again its a small place and isnt a huge turn around.
If it was a big company it would be expected they would pay for you to park places.
My gaffer expects us to park at truckstops and will pay £10.00 towards the cost of parking. If the load is of a particularly high value and a MSA is the only option he’ll pay for that - providing you notify him first. His reason is that if the curtains get slashed and/or the load is pilfered he’s covered on the insurance.
I parked in a layby on the A14 once, the last one before the Catthorpe interchange. It was late and there wouldn’t have been any space left at Welford. I was carrying eight aluminium ‘bars’ - 30ft in length and 1ft in diameter. The only way they could be unloaded was by fork lift. Had BOTH back doors open and I still had my curtains slashed!
pulltopark:
My gaffer expects us to park at truckstops and will pay £10.00 towards the cost of parking.
That’s big of him. He’ll contribute toward your costs for parking his truck. 
What a top boss, bet they are queuing up to work for him. 
How much does he ask you to pay toward his other business costs, such as fuel and maintenance?
WTF is it with drivers? If someone posted on here that the boss had asked them to chip in toward the fuel bill there would, quite rightly, be a torrent of posts against the boss yet when bosses want the driver to contribute toward a different business cost, parking, it seems the majority accept this as normal.
my boss doesn’t pay for parking, and i think he’s right the msa operators are the scum of the earth and should of been put down at birth, they over charge for everything they do, supply crap a sevice,poor food and then imprison you if you happen to park in the wrong place if there are no more spaces left and you have run out of time !!! whats clacket lane now £27.00 i know that includes a food voucher for something a wouldn’t feed my dog but hey!!
if you cant work out how long it going to take to get somewhere and give yourself time to find somewhere free to park then i dont thinj you should be doing this job(i know there are unforseen problems) now i will sit back and wait for the flack my helmits on lol 
we do upto 5 nights out for our small co 3 class 2 and 2 7.5 no insistance to park anywhere so if YOU pay to park YOU pay. Unbelievably the same goes for tolls YOU use YOU pay. So the extra cost in fuel is ok but he wont pay tolls. West Thurrock to Rochester is a long way avoiding tolls !!!
pulltopark wrote:
My gaffer expects us to park at truckstops and will pay £10.00 towards the cost of parking.
No way, unless he’s paying me £35 night out money.
WTF is it with drivers?
I agree, there seems to be a growing number that will do stupid stuff like that.
YOU use YOU pay
Fine, long way round every time then. 
Coffeeholic:
That’s big of him. He’ll contribute toward your costs for parking his truck…
I don’t see what your problem is… Those are the terms of parking a truck at night, you either accept it or you don’t. If I didn’t accept it I wouldn’t work for him, simple!
Besides, most places that we park are around £10.00 per night and, as I explained and if you read the post, if it is any more I’ll notify him first and he’ll pay the extra. I’ve never been out of pocket yet. What’s the problem?
And yes, there are a number of drivers queueing up to work for him - he pays the best rates for the area, similar to that of London and Northampton! Only most that he employs never last because general haulage is a complete anathema to them and they simply can’t do the job! There seems to be very few real professional drivers these days! Furthermore, the majority of the blokes I work with have worked for him for 12-20 years so he can’t be all that bad.
Easiest way is to just do day work.
Sleep in a proper bed with a proper size television to watch and proper meals. Clean toilet and bath/shower.
No sleeping in a tin box 
I might add that we get £21.40 night out money, as well as £5.00 meal allowance - thats £26.40 per night to sleep in the back of a cab - I still don’t see what the problem is…!
pulltopark:
Coffeeholic:
That’s big of him. He’ll contribute toward your costs for parking his truck…I don’t see what your problem is…
You don’t see what the problem is with you paying, out of your pocket, part of what it costs your boss to run his business? Are you for real? What would you do if you go in Monday and he informs you he is now expecting you to put £20 worth of diesel in the tank each day out of your pocket? Would you accept that because he pays better than other companies in the area?
Ah, I apologise. I am mistaken. I just realised if you are contributing to the running costs of the business you are obviously getting a share of the profits. My mistake.
Am I for real? Are you for real? Have you ever worked in transport? Have you ever spent nights away from home? This is a standard practice throughout the whole of the transport industry.
Let me try to enlighten you… My brother used to work for BT as a Senior Business Manager. All his business expenses were put on his own credit card. This included taking clients out to dinner, fuel for the company car, flights, hotels, and so on. At the end of the month BT would reimburse those expenses in full.
Why is it so different for me? My gaffer pays me £21.40 to night out and £5.00 meal allowance wherever I park. If I pay £10.00 parking it’s reimbursed at the end of the week along with the night out money and meal allowances. I get well over £100 every week in cash on top of my wages, I still can’t see your problem!
pulltopark:
I might add that we get £21.40 night out money, as well as £5.00 meal allowance - thats £26.40 per night to sleep in the back of a cab
£26.40 for 9/11hrs of your time to be a security guard for the truck/load
Seany:
Easiest way is to just do day work.
Sleep in a proper bed with a proper size television to watch and proper meals. Clean toilet and bath/shower.
No sleeping in a tin box
There are a few downsides, inc the earache off the missus every night
I might add that were ‘issued’ a float of £100 in cash to pay for such expenses. We also have a profit sharing scheme and get an accident bonus!
peirre:
£26.40 for 9/11hrs of your time to be a security guard for the truck/load
I don’t give a monkeys to what happens to the load when I’m parked up - anybody is welcome to it, not my problem! It’s insured and I’m certainly not going to get beaten up or stabbed if someone wants it that badly. Nobody would want the truck either it’s nearly ten years old! Providing I’m parked somewhere that my gaffer perceives to be a safe and secure place there’s no comeback on me whatsoever.
Often there’s a few of us from the same company parked up in the same place. £26.40 pays for a laugh and a good night out with the lads. Don’t have to bother getting a taxi home either as the cab is only a short walk away!
I wouldn’t be doing it if there was no benefit to me!
my boss pays upto £15 without questions and more if you tell him in advance.
Personaly i try to avoid msa’s and truckstops where possible because what do you get for your money.
You’re not safe from theft, the food at most is bloody awful,
the parking area is often just a muddy field.
We are told to park secure even if we are empty due to the rise in fuel theft, we also can get a £50-100 float from the company to cover tolls and parking.
At the end of the day it’s cheaper for our company to pay out £20+ parking than lose £300+ in fuel plus all the extra cost like call out and repair and as long as we have a paid parking ticket the insureance will cover the cost of anything stolen or damaged.
Personally I try to avoid MSA’s as they are over priced and food is crap, normally end up parking at the delivery point, one of our agents or a truckstop but from time to time end up on the MSA’s
As for being a security guard for £21 a night… If someone wants the truck all they got to do is ask and I will hand em the keys as it aint worth getting hurt or killed for and as long as they leave me alone they can do whatever to the truck or the load.
If your gaffer does not pay your parking then he really can’t say much when your slashed or load is stolen.
My boss gives us a £100 float each monday before we leave the yard. This is to pay for tolls and parking and anything else, such as oil, screenwash etc etc. We can also buy food with it, but only if its an emergency, otherwise we are expected to cook ourselves a meal. Which is fair enough.
s2rich:
Overnight parking is minimum £20 these days and i average 3 nights out a week…
That’s a myth, overnight parking is not a minimum of £20.00 these days… The average is approximately £10.00 unless you’re parking on MSAs. For example,
- Ross-on-Wye - £5.00
- The Hollies, Cannock - £5.00
- Truckers Rest, Cannock - £10.00 including meal
- Birmingham Truckstop - £7.50
- Lincoln Farm, Birmingham - £10.00 including £4.00 meal voucher
- Carnforth - £10.00 (I think, been a while since I’ve been there)
- Silvey’s Truckstop, Chippenham - £12.00 (I think) including meal voucher
- Red Lion, Northampton - £12.00 including meal voucher
- J26 M25 - £15.00 including meal and bottle of beer (don’t expect a smile)
There’s also Chesterfield, Shepshed and a load of others for around £10.00. Where you get £20.00 from I don’t know!